In April, the Trump administration announced drastic funding cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities. Those cuts are harming education groups that rely on NEH grants — and students like me.
Among the organizations that lost funding was National History Day, a nonprofit that runs a half-century-old competition engaging some 500,000 students annually in original historical research. It also provides teachers with resources and training. For many schools, the annual event is cemented into the social studies curriculum.
The cuts sliced $825,000 from National History Day’s budget over several years, the group said. Meanwhile, more than half of its state-level competitions rely in part or entirely on funding from state humanities councils — which were also devastated by the cuts.
Without that money, National History Day’s leaders say some states will likely have to cancel their programs altogether, and the national event will be scaled back, too.
The loss of funding is discouraging to me, a high school senior in Texas who has witnessed the passage of legislation in my state and around the country in recent years limiting what can be taught in history and social studies classes. National History Day allowed me the chance to expand on what I felt was missing or inaccurate in my textbooks. The fact that there might no longer be a structured way for students to navigate incomplete curricula feels scary and is an intentional part of a broader effort by lawmakers to change how history is understood and what students can know about their past.
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At my sixth to 12th grade school in El Paso, Texas, History Day is an annual event that all middle school students participate in from September to January. They choose their topics and presentations and work to research and create a finished project as historians.
In February, we hold a schoolwide competition, a highly anticipated event in which high schoolers serve as judges and mentors for middle school projects, ultimately deciding which students advance. High schoolers automatically advance. We have become known locally as an “NHD school” and fostered a community of students who love history.
I have participated in local and state History Day fairs since seventh grade, and the program allowed me to grow as a writer and researcher. In my junior year, I wrote a paper about British imperialism and how it led to violence during the 1947 Partition between India and Pakistan, and the lasting divisions today.
I scoured dozens of oral histories of Partition survivors, including interviewing family members about their experiences. The self-guided nature of National History Day, the resources from my El Paso branch, and the support from my history teacher made my paper more than a project — but a connection with my Pakistani identity. I was able to go beyond just learning about the Partition, but also understanding how it shaped my family’s lives.
Many other students have had similar experiences with the program.
National History Day “is a way to explore a niche or smaller area of history that I wouldn’t be able to as deeply in a classroom,” said Tessa Kipnis, a high school senior at Westtown School in Pennsylvania, who wrote her project on the Rwandan genocide and France’s role in it. “It’s helped me to expand upon my passion for storytelling and self-motivated research.”
Added Kipnis: “It’s the student-led inquiry that is really going to dissipate with the funding being cut. And I feel with our current situation with the Department of Education and the funding and lack thereof, it’s hard not to view this funding being cut as part of a bigger piece.”
Many communities may be able to raise money to keep their local programs going. But even if my local or state National History Day programs continue, I know that not all communities will have the same resources. In turn, the national event will be missing vital perspectives of students, especially those from low-income and marginalized communities.
Part of what makes History Day so special is interacting with other projects and building community with other students. Now, it feels exclusive.
Anita Kuriakose, a high school junior at Academies at Englewood in New Jersey, told me she shares those concerns. “[NEH funding cuts] may cause other students to be cut from the research experience, and not be able to gain more insight into historical perspectives. Students won’t be given the chance to think creatively or research more about history outside the classroom.”
Lynne O’Hara, deputy director of educational programs at National History Day and a former social studies teacher, also told me that National History Day hinges on accessibility. “History Day is a program that should be available to all students,” she said.
“Sometimes in education, we’re just pushed to do so much and give students a little taste of all these things. But you get one topic that you really have control over and command over, and I think that really empowers students,” added O’Hara. “When I would ask my students on the last day, ‘What’s the thing you did that you were most proud of in this class?’ Ninety-nine percent of them said, ‘It was my History Day project.’”
O’Hara told me the sense of community at my school around National History Day is common among participating schools. “When teachers participate over the years, not only does it change the way they teach, but it also creates these school cultures.”
The idea that some students will not be able to experience History Day and the thrill that comes with choosing what they research is heartbreaking. Many history curricula already discuss the past in a way that doesn’t allow nuance, and National History Day gave me a path to explore the people, events and injustices that are traditionally ignored.
Organizations including the Oregon Humanities and the Federation of State Humanities Councils, the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Historical Association and the Modern Language Association have sued over the cuts. In August, a federal judge characterized the Trump administration’s abrupt cancellation of the grants as unlawful and allowed the case to proceed.
The theme for the 2025-26 National History Day event is “Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History.” I hope that in six months, I will be able to present at my local fair and that National History Day will continue to provide students nationwide with a necessary platform.
Marium Zahra is a high school senior and independent journalist based in El Paso, Texas. Her work covering social justice and youth has been published in outlets including The Nation, Prism Reports, Yes! Magazine and The Progressive.
Contact editor Caroline Preston at 212-870-8965, via Signal at CarolineP.83 or on email at preston@hechingerreport.org.
The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.
Charlie Kirk, the conservative millennial influencer who galvanized young Americans to support the GOP and was assassinated this week in Utah, was the most influential modern-day catalyst of shifting voting trends among fledgling voters, according to Republican and Democratic strategists.
Kirk founded the nonprofit Turning Point USA in 2012 at the age of 18, and it grew into a force that promoted conservative views on high school and college campuses across the nation.
“He found something among young people that none of us identified,” said Shawn Steel, a member of the Republican National Committee from Orange County who knew Kirk for nearly a decade and invited him to speak before the RNC’s conservative steering committee.
“He found an entire movement in America that conservatives were not even aware they could find. Not only that, he nurtured and created an entire new generation of conservative activists,” said Steel, the husband of former Rep. Michelle Steel. “His legacy will endure.”
The admiration for Kirk’s political organizing skills and mental acuity cut across political lines.
“Whether you agreed with him or not — and to be clear, I didn’t — he was one of the most brilliant political organizers of his generation, and probably generations before that,” said Stephanie Cutter, a veteran Democratic strategist who served as an advisor to Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Kamala Harris. “He could be controversial, but he struck a nerve with people who were likely disengaged in politics prior to Turning Point and built a powerful movement.”
In addition to appealing to young voters about the economic headwinds they faced as they sought to climb the career ladder and tried to buy a house, Kirk also espoused sharply conservative views.
Beyond espousing traditional conservative views — being anti-abortion, pro-gun rights and dubious of climate change — Kirk was critical of gay and transgender rights, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, saying last year that if he saw a Black airplane pilot, he hoped he was qualified. He was accused of being an anti-Semite because of repeated comments about the power of Jewish donors in the United States, and of being Islamophobic because of comments such as describing “large dedicated Islamic areas” as “a threat to America.”
Kirk, 31 and a father of two, died Wednesday after being shot in the neck while speaking at Utah Valley University. Kirk’s assassination was the latest instance of political violence in an increasingly politically polarized country.
President Trump survived two assassination attempts in 2024 as he successfully sought reelection to the White House.
Kirk’s “mission was to bring young people into the political process, which he did better than anybody ever, to share his love of country and to spread the simple words of common sense on campuses nationwide,” Trump said Wednesday.
On Thursday, Trump told reporters on the White House’s South Lawn that Kirk was partly responsible for his victory in the 2024 presidential election and repeated that he would posthumously award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Turning Point USA, created a month before Kirk graduated from high school, became the new face of conservatism on college campuses and had chapters at more than 800 schools. Prominent conservatives heavily funded the group; in the fiscal year that ended in June of 2024, Turning Point reported $85 million in revenue.
Longtime GOP activist Jon Fleischman, the former executive director of the California Republican Party and the former chairman of the state’s chapter of Young Americans for Freedom in the early 1990s, said Kirk was pivotal to Trump’s election.
“Charlie Kirk was probably the single most prominent and successful youth organizer in the Trump movement,” Fleischman said, adding that Kirk superseded any other GOP organizer he knew at increasing conservative prospects among young voters.
“As somebody who cut their teeth as a youth organizer, I have nothing but awe for the level of sophistication he brought to that field of work,” he said.
Support for Trump among young voters exponentially increased in the 2024 presidential election, according to data compiled by Tufts University. While President Biden had a 25-point edge over Trump among voters ages 18 to 29 in the 2020 election, Harris had a four-point advantage among this cohort last year.
“This last election was the best performance Republicans have had with the youth vote, particularly male voters, in 20 years, maybe even going back to the ’80s,” said Steve Deace, a conservative radio host in Iowa who had known Kirk for a decade.
He gave credit for that success partly to work Kirk did on the ground at colleges across the country, notably being willing to amicably debate with people who disagreed with his beliefs.
“Charlie was basically a Renaissance man who was comfortable in a lot of settings. He wasn’t hoity-toity,” he said.
Deace and others added that this moment could be a turning point for the nation’s democracy and the split between the left and the right.
“We’re going to have a real conversation about whether we can share a country or not. The answer may be we can’t,” Deace said. “We have to decide if we are capable of the fundamental differences between us being adjudicated at the ballot box…. We have to decide if we can share a country. If we truly want to, we’ll figure it out. If we don’t, we won’t. That’s the conversation that needs to happen.”
Bombastic conservative commentator Roger Stone went further, arguing that modern-day Democrats are a greater threat to the nation than terrorists, drug cartels and foreign spies.
“The rot is too deep to reverse our course with mere rhetoric,” Stone wrote to supporters. “Sept. 10, 2025 was the day we crossed the Rubicon, lost our innocence and realized only one path remains to ensure humanity’s survival. The time for American renewal is at hand, and the tree of liberty shall germinate in warp speed with Charlie Kirk serving as the martyr of our glorious refounding.”
Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump who played an influential role in rallying young Republican voters, was shot and killed at a Utah college event in what the governor called a political assassination.Authorities say Kirk was killed with a single shot from a rooftop on Wednesday. Whoever fired the gun then slipped away amid the chaos of screams and students fleeing the Utah Valley University campus. Federal, state and local authorities were still searching for an unidentified shooter early Thursday and working what they called “multiple active crime scenes.”“This is a dark day for our state. It’s a tragic day for our nation,” said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. “I want to be very clear this is a political assassination.”Two people were detained Wednesday but neither was determined to be connected to the shooting and both were released, Utah public safety officials said.Authorities did not immediately identify a motive, but the circumstances of the shooting drew renewed attention to an escalating threat of political violence in the United States that in the last several years has cut across the ideological spectrum. The assassination drew bipartisan condemnation, but a national reckoning over ways to prevent political grievances from manifesting as deadly violence seemed elusive.Videos posted to social media from Utah Valley University show Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone while sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans “The American Comeback” and “Prove Me Wrong.” A single shot rings out and Kirk can be seen reaching up with his right hand as a large volume of blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators are heard gasping and screaming before people start to run away.Kirk was taking questions about gun violenceKirk was speaking at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political youth organization, Arizona-based Turning Point USA, at the Sorensen Center courtyard on campus. Immediately before the shooting, Kirk was taking questions from an audience member about mass shootings and gun violence.“Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” the person asked. Kirk responded, “Too many.”The questioner followed up: “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?”“Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk asked.Then a single shot rang out.The shooter, who Cox pledged would be held accountable in a state with the death penalty, wore dark clothing and fired from a building roof some distance away.Madison Lattin was watching only a few dozen feet from Kirk’s left when she said she heard the bullet hit Kirk.“Blood is falling and dripping down and you’re just like so scared, not just for him but your own safety,” she said.She said she saw people drop to the ground in an eerie silence pierced immediately by cries. Lattin ran while others splashed through decorative pools to get away. Some fell and were trampled in the stampede. People lost their shoes, backpacks, folding chairs and water bottles in the frenzy.When Lattin later learned that Kirk had died, she said she wept, describing him as a role model who had showed her how to be determined and fight for the truth.Trump calls Kirk ‘martyr for truth’Some 3,000 people were in attendance, according to a statement from the Utah Department of Public Safety. The university police department had six officers working the event, along with Kirk’s own security detail, authorities said.Trump announced the death on social media and praised the 31-year-old Kirk who was co-founder and CEO of Turning Point as “Great, and even Legendary.” Later Wednesday, he released a recorded video from the White House in which he called Kirk a “martyr for truth and freedom” and blamed the rhetoric of the “radical left” for the killing.Utah Valley University said the campus was immediately evacuated after the shooting, with officers escorting people to safety. It will be closed until Monday.Meanwhile, armed officers walked around the neighborhood bordering the campus, knocking on doors and asking for any information residents might have on the shooting. Helicopters buzzed overhead.Wednesday’s event, billed as the first stop on Kirk’s “The American Comeback Tour,” had generated a polarizing campus reaction. An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Kirk from appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures. The university issued a statement last week citing First Amendment rights and affirming its “commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.”Last week, Kirk posted on X images of news clips showing his visit was sparking controversy. He wrote, “What’s going on in Utah?”Condemnation from across the political spectrumThe shooting drew swift condemnation across the political aisle as Democratic officials joined Trump, who ordered flags lowered to half-staff and issued a presidential proclamation, and Republican allies of Kirk in decrying the violence.“The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible,” Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who last March hosted Kirk on his podcast, posted on X.“The murder of Charlie Kirk breaks my heart. My deepest sympathies are with his wife, two young children, and friends,” said Gabrielle Giffords, the former Democratic congresswoman who was wounded in a 2011 shooting in her Arizona district.The shooting appeared poised to become part of a spike of political violence that has touched a range of ideologies and representatives of both major parties. The attacks include the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband at their house in June, the firebombing of a Colorado parade to demand Hamas release hostages, and a fire set at the house of Pennsylvania’s governor, who is Jewish, in April. The most notorious of these events is the shooting of Trump during a campaign rally last year.Former Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz, who was at Wednesday’s event, told the Fox News Channel that he didn’t believe Kirk had enough security.“Utah is one of the safest places on the planet,” he said. “And so we just don’t have these types of things.”Turning Point was founded in suburban Chicago in 2012 by Kirk, then 18, and William Montgomery, a tea party activist, to proselytize on college campuses for low taxes and limited government. It was not an immediate success.But Kirk’s zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over an influential set of conservative financiers.Despite early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Trump after he clinched the GOP nomination in 2016. Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, during the general election campaign.Soon, Kirk was a regular presence on cable TV, where he leaned into the culture wars and heaped praise on the then-president. Trump and his son were equally effusive and often spoke at Turning Point conferences.
OREM, Utah —
Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and close ally of President Donald Trump who played an influential role in rallying young Republican voters, was shot and killed at a Utah college event in what the governor called a political assassination.
Authorities say Kirk was killed with a single shot from a rooftop on Wednesday. Whoever fired the gun then slipped away amid the chaos of screams and students fleeing the Utah Valley University campus. Federal, state and local authorities were still searching for an unidentified shooter early Thursday and working what they called “multiple active crime scenes.”
“This is a dark day for our state. It’s a tragic day for our nation,” said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. “I want to be very clear this is a political assassination.”
Two people were detained Wednesday but neither was determined to be connected to the shooting and both were released, Utah public safety officials said.
Authorities did not immediately identify a motive, but the circumstances of the shooting drew renewed attention to an escalating threat of political violence in the United States that in the last several years has cut across the ideological spectrum. The assassination drew bipartisan condemnation, but a national reckoning over ways to prevent political grievances from manifesting as deadly violence seemed elusive.
Videos posted to social media from Utah Valley University show Kirk speaking into a handheld microphone while sitting under a white tent emblazoned with the slogans “The American Comeback” and “Prove Me Wrong.” A single shot rings out and Kirk can be seen reaching up with his right hand as a large volume of blood gushes from the left side of his neck. Stunned spectators are heard gasping and screaming before people start to run away.
Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images
Charlie Kirk speaks at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025 in Orem, Utah. Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, was speaking at his “American Comeback Tour” when he was shot in the neck and killed.
Kirk was taking questions about gun violence
Kirk was speaking at a debate hosted by his nonprofit political youth organization, Arizona-based Turning Point USA, at the Sorensen Center courtyard on campus. Immediately before the shooting, Kirk was taking questions from an audience member about mass shootings and gun violence.
“Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” the person asked. Kirk responded, “Too many.”
The questioner followed up: “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?”
“Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk asked.
Then a single shot rang out.
The shooter, who Cox pledged would be held accountable in a state with the death penalty, wore dark clothing and fired from a building roof some distance away.
Madison Lattin was watching only a few dozen feet from Kirk’s left when she said she heard the bullet hit Kirk.
“Blood is falling and dripping down and you’re just like so scared, not just for him but your own safety,” she said.
She said she saw people drop to the ground in an eerie silence pierced immediately by cries. Lattin ran while others splashed through decorative pools to get away. Some fell and were trampled in the stampede. People lost their shoes, backpacks, folding chairs and water bottles in the frenzy.
When Lattin later learned that Kirk had died, she said she wept, describing him as a role model who had showed her how to be determined and fight for the truth.
Trump calls Kirk ‘martyr for truth’
Some 3,000 people were in attendance, according to a statement from the Utah Department of Public Safety. The university police department had six officers working the event, along with Kirk’s own security detail, authorities said.
Trump announced the death on social media and praised the 31-year-old Kirk who was co-founder and CEO of Turning Point as “Great, and even Legendary.” Later Wednesday, he released a recorded video from the White House in which he called Kirk a “martyr for truth and freedom” and blamed the rhetoric of the “radical left” for the killing.
Utah Valley University said the campus was immediately evacuated after the shooting, with officers escorting people to safety. It will be closed until Monday.
Meanwhile, armed officers walked around the neighborhood bordering the campus, knocking on doors and asking for any information residents might have on the shooting. Helicopters buzzed overhead.
Wednesday’s event, billed as the first stop on Kirk’s “The American Comeback Tour,” had generated a polarizing campus reaction. An online petition calling for university administrators to bar Kirk from appearing received nearly 1,000 signatures. The university issued a statement last week citing First Amendment rights and affirming its “commitment to free speech, intellectual inquiry, and constructive dialogue.”
Last week, Kirk posted on X images of news clips showing his visit was sparking controversy. He wrote, “What’s going on in Utah?”
Condemnation from across the political spectrum
The shooting drew swift condemnation across the political aisle as Democratic officials joined Trump, who ordered flags lowered to half-staff and issued a presidential proclamation, and Republican allies of Kirk in decrying the violence.
“The attack on Charlie Kirk is disgusting, vile, and reprehensible,” Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who last March hosted Kirk on his podcast, posted on X.
“The murder of Charlie Kirk breaks my heart. My deepest sympathies are with his wife, two young children, and friends,” said Gabrielle Giffords, the former Democratic congresswoman who was wounded in a 2011 shooting in her Arizona district.
The shooting appeared poised to become part of a spike of political violence that has touched a range of ideologies and representatives of both major parties. The attacks include the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband at their house in June, the firebombing of a Colorado parade to demand Hamas release hostages, and a fire set at the house of Pennsylvania’s governor, who is Jewish, in April. The most notorious of these events is the shooting of Trump during a campaign rally last year.
Former Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz, who was at Wednesday’s event, told the Fox News Channel that he didn’t believe Kirk had enough security.
“Utah is one of the safest places on the planet,” he said. “And so we just don’t have these types of things.”
Turning Point was founded in suburban Chicago in 2012 by Kirk, then 18, and William Montgomery, a tea party activist, to proselytize on college campuses for low taxes and limited government. It was not an immediate success.
But Kirk’s zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over an influential set of conservative financiers.
Despite early misgivings, Turning Point enthusiastically backed Trump after he clinched the GOP nomination in 2016. Kirk served as a personal aide to Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, during the general election campaign.
Soon, Kirk was a regular presence on cable TV, where he leaned into the culture wars and heaped praise on the then-president. Trump and his son were equally effusive and often spoke at Turning Point conferences.
Who is Charlie Kirk? The conservative activist shot at Utah Valley University
Press conference we will first hear from Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Be Mason. Then we’ll hear from the FBI special agent in charge, Robert Bowles. Uh, we’ll then hear from Utah Valley University Vice President Val Peterson, who’s been in touch with President Timenez. And then we’ll hear from Governor Cox, turn the time over to Commissioner Mason. Hello everyone I’m Bo Mason, commissioner for the Utah Department of Public Safety. Today at approximately 12:20 Mountain Standard Time. Political influencer Charlie Kirk was shot in an event at the Utah Valley University. He was taken by private vehicle to Timpanoga’s Hospital where he later passed. The Utah Department of Public Safety will be co-leading this criminal investigation to find this killer along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. We’re working in unison with the county sheriff’s office, the local police department, and the university police department, all of which have been very cooperative and fully engaged in this process. Shortly after the shooting, we did have *** suspect in custody, George Zinn. But he was released from custody after we identified that he did not match the shooting suspect, um, and was not an accurate person of interest. However, he has been booked into the uh county jail by Utah Valley University Police Department for obstruction of justice. We do still have an active investigation for the person of interest. This incident occurred with *** large crowd around. There was one shot fired and 11 victim. While the suspect is at large, we believe this was *** targeted attack towards one individual. This is *** tragic moment in our state and in our country. As we heal, we encourage everyone who’s struggling with news of the incident to call 988, our state mental health crisis line. In addition to that, our partners with the FBI will also be discussing other ways we can communicate through the public for tips and other information. Thank you. Good afternoon On behalf of the FBI, we extend our sincerest condolences to the family and friends of Charlie Kirk. Our thoughts are also with the people who witnessed this traumatic event. We know that you, what you experienced was very difficult. Our thoughts are with you as well. As soon as we heard about the shooting, special agents and personnel from the Salt Lake Field Office. Responded immediately. We have full resources devoted to this investigation, including tactical, operational, investigative, and intelligence. To be clear, the FBI will fully support and co-lead this investigation alongside with our partners. We’re working on setting up *** digital media tip line and as soon as it’s established, we’ll get that information out to everyone. I know there’s *** lot of questions. This is very much an active case and this investigation is in its early stages. We are following all the leads and all the evidence. If anyone has any information, please report it to the FBI or local law enforcement. Thank you. On behalf of President Tenez, who we’ve been communicating with and she’s on her way back right now, I, um, say that on behalf of Utah Valley University we are shocked and saddened by the tragic passing of Charlie Kirk. We express our sincere condolences to the Kirk family. We grieve with our students, faculty and staff who bore witness to this unspeakable tragedy. He was invited by the student group Turning Point USA to speak on our campus. We firmly believe that UVU is *** place to share ideas and to debate openly and respectfully. Any attempt to infringe on those rights has no place here. We do not condone any form of violence at UVU and seek to make our campus *** safe place for all. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us on this uh on this dark and and tragic occasion. I wanna thank our law enforcement officers who are leading this investigation, starting with Chief Long, uh, and, and his, uh, his response here with the UVU police department. Um, we’re grateful for your leadership and, uh, and your team, and again to the, the speakers that you’ve just heard from who are are co-leading this investigation. I also want to uh recognize Sheriff Mike Smith who has been an invaluable partner as uh as this investigation moves forward. I’ve been in touch with uh with with President Trump, with FBI Director Cash Patel, um, we are completely aligned with our state and federal partners as uh as we work through this case now. This is *** dark day for our state. It’s *** tragic day for our nation. I want to be very clear that this is *** political assassination. We are. Celebrating 250 years of the founding of this great nation. That founding document, the Declaration of Independence. That this this great experiment on which we embarked together 250 years ago that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. The first one of those is life. And today, *** life was taken. Charlie Kirk was first and foremost. *** husband and *** dad to two young children. He was also Very much politically involved and that’s why he was here on campus. Charlie believed in the power of free speech and debate. To shape ideas. And to persuade people. Historically Our university campuses in this nation and here in the state of Utah have been the place where truth and ideas are formulated and debated. And that’s what he does. He comes on college campuses and he debates. That is foundational to the formation of our country. To our most basic constitutional rights. And when someone takes the life of *** person. Because of their ideas or their ideals. Then that very constitutional foundation is threatened. Now we have *** person of interest in custody. The investigation is ongoing. But I want to make it crystal clear right now to whoever did this. We will find you. We will try you And we will hold you accountable to the furthest extent of the law. And I just want to remind people that we still have the death penalty here in the state of Utah. Our nation is broken. We’ve had Political assassinations recently in Minnesota. We had an attempted assassination on the governor of Pennsylvania. And we had an attempted assassination. On *** presidential candidate and former president of the United States and now current president of the United States. Nothing I say can unite us as *** country. Nothing I can say right now can fix what is broken. Nothing I can say can bring back Charlie Kirk. Our hearts are broken. We mourn. With his wife, his children, his family, his friends, we mourn as *** nation. If anyone in the sound of my voice. Celebrated even *** little bit at the news of this shooting. I would beg you To look in the mirror. And to see if you can find *** better angel in there somewhere. I don’t care what his politics are. I care that he was an American. We desperately need our country. We desperately need leaders in our country, but more than the leaders we just need every single person in this country. To think about where we are and where we want to be. To ask ourselves, is this, is this it? Is this what 250 years has wrought on us? I pray that that’s not the case. I pray that those who hated. What Charlie Cook stood for. We put down their social media and their pens. And pray for his family. And that all of us. All of us will try to find *** way to stop hating our fellow Americans. With that we’re happy to take *** few questions. The FBI director is posting that *** that *** suspect is in custody. I would just like clarification. Do you or do you not have *** suspected shooter? We have *** person of interest in custody that is being interviewed right now. We do not that is not George Zim. That is correct. Are you still searching or looking for another shooter or anybody else related to this? Yes, we are actively looking for anyone and everyone who has any any possible information relating to the shooting. Can you tell us details about the suspect being taken into custody, where, you know, how long ago. We, we cannot at this point, but we will get you that information when when we can. Is there believed to be *** second individual involved in the shooting? At this point there is no information that would lead us to believe that there is *** second person involved. Can you guys talk. Um, we. Do you want to talk about what we know there? Yeah. The only information we have on on the suspect, uh, the possible shooter is taken from closed circuit TV here on campus. Um, we do have that we’re, we’re analyzing it, um, but it is security camera footage so you can, you can, uh, kind of guess what the, what the quality of that is, um, but we do know, uh, dressed in, in all, all dark clothing, uh, but we don’t have *** much better description other than that. The shot came from here on campus, um, from, uh, *** location, um. And *** Uh, potentially from *** roof, yes, and longer distance shot from *** roof. So to clarify with the security camera footage you have and the personal interest that’s in custody, do those, does that match up? That’s what we’re trying to decipher right now. Did the FBI or DHS have anything on the threat for this morning? I can’t speak I’ll just say that the investigation is ongoing and as soon as we have further information, we will be sure to release it. Any indications of foreign intelligence involvement? As of now I can’t comment on any of that. Can you talk *** little about the security of the event itself, but who was there security wise and, and what happens on these kind of events. So my name is Jeff Long. I’m the police chief here at UVU, and I’ll tell you right now we’re devastated. We’re *** small, uh, small police department. Uh, we have *** very large campus. We have over 40,000 students, and we love our students. Uh, we love our visitors and we’re, we’re devastated by what happened today. This is the police chief’s nightmare. Um, I’m, I’m very saddened for the Kirk family. um, I know his, uh. His wife and parents, uh, found out about this, you know, obviously he’s away from home. He’s here in Utah they find out, uh, by police officer, uh, that that visits their home. That’s tragic. Nobody wants that, but I can tell you about our venue today. This was an open venue. This is outside. Uh, we did have, um, 6 officers working in that event. Um, we had, uh, probably over 3000 people that were in attendance, um, it sat down in kind of *** bowl area here on the central campus. We have *** waterfall area. And so he was uh kind of in *** *** lower area, uh, surrounded by uh by buildings, um, you know, we, we had, um, uh, some plain clothes police officers that were in the crowd as well, you know, we trained for these things and and you think you, you, you have things covered and um. You know, these things, um, you, you know, unfortunately they happen. You try to get, you try to get your bases covered and unfortunately today we didn’t and because of that we had this tragic incident, so we did have officers there. We had, uh, Charlie Kirk’s team, um, he has *** security team that travels with him and they were here with him when, when he, when he was shot. I’m sorry, the recovered. Um, I, at this point, I, I, I can’t disclose that. I was shot. There was *** question being asked about mass shooting. Was that person apprehended? And do you know who asked that question? Say the question again. I don’t know if I understand what you’re saying. When Charlie Kirk was shot, he was answering *** question about mass shootings specifically. Was that person apprehended and do you know who asked that question? Uh, I do not, we do not have that at this moment. ladies and gentlemen, we have time for just one more question, so thank you. Yeah, um, *** question for the chief as well, um, was it your team or Kirk’s team or *** combination of both that kind of set the security protocol for the event? So we worked together, you know, he has his team and and they do this all over the country we all know that this is not uncommon for them uh they’re very comfortable on campuses and I was coordinating with his lead security guy and, um, uh, so yeah, we were working together. Was this *** sharpshooter type shot? Ladies and gentlemen, that’s that’s, um, those are all the questions that will be answered today um again, thank you for for covering this. uh, we will be, uh, we’ll be updating you as soon as we have additional information through uh through normal channels working with law enforcement again our. Our deepest condolences uh to the uh to the Kirk family and uh and to the students who were who were there today um and uh I would, I would just ask everyone everywhere to please pray for their family and uh and to pray for our country and we need it now more than ever thank you.
Who is Charlie Kirk? The conservative activist shot at Utah Valley University
Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and Donald Trump ally, was fatally shot at an event at Utah Valley University, President Trump confirmed.Video above: Utah officials give first news conference after Charlie Kirk shootingKirk is a well-known political activist who helped found conservative youth organization Turning Point USA. He has millions of followers on social media and is considered one of the most popular conservative media personalities. A backer of Trump during the president’s initial 2016 run, Kirk took Turning Point from one of a constellation of well-funded conservative groups to the center of the right-of-center universe.Turning Point’s political wing helped run get-out-the-vote for Trump’s 2024 campaign, trying to energize disaffected conservatives who rarely vote. Trump won Arizona, Turning Point’s home state, by five percentage points after narrowly losing it in 2020. The group is known for its flamboyant events that often feature strobe lighting and pyrotechnics. It claims more than 250,000 student members.Kirk is known for attending events at high schools and colleges across the country while advocating for conservative views.Because of this, Kirk is seen by some as a controversial figure, as he tends to argue with people who do not agree with his points of view. He often records these arguments and posts them to social media for people to discuss. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Video above: Utah officials give first news conference after Charlie Kirk shooting
Kirk is a well-known political activist who helped found conservative youth organization Turning Point USA. He has millions of followers on social media and is considered one of the most popular conservative media personalities.
A backer of Trump during the president’s initial 2016 run, Kirk took Turning Point from one of a constellation of well-funded conservative groups to the center of the right-of-center universe.
Turning Point’s political wing helped run get-out-the-vote for Trump’s 2024 campaign, trying to energize disaffected conservatives who rarely vote. Trump won Arizona, Turning Point’s home state, by five percentage points after narrowly losing it in 2020. The group is known for its flamboyant events that often feature strobe lighting and pyrotechnics. It claims more than 250,000 student members.
Kirk is known for attending events at high schools and colleges across the country while advocating for conservative views.
Because of this, Kirk is seen by some as a controversial figure, as he tends to argue with people who do not agree with his points of view. He often records these arguments and posts them to social media for people to discuss.
Who is Charlie Kirk? The conservative activist shot at Utah Valley University
Press conference we will first hear from Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Be Mason. Then we’ll hear from the FBI special agent in charge, Robert Bowles. Uh, we’ll then hear from Utah Valley University Vice President Val Peterson, who’s been in touch with President Timenez. And then we’ll hear from Governor Cox, turn the time over to Commissioner Mason. Hello everyone I’m Bo Mason, commissioner for the Utah Department of Public Safety. Today at approximately 12:20 Mountain Standard Time. Political influencer Charlie Kirk was shot in an event at the Utah Valley University. He was taken by private vehicle to Timpanoga’s Hospital where he later passed. The Utah Department of Public Safety will be co-leading this criminal investigation to find this killer along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. We’re working in unison with the county sheriff’s office, the local police department, and the university police department, all of which have been very cooperative and fully engaged in this process. Shortly after the shooting, we did have *** suspect in custody, George Zinn. But he was released from custody after we identified that he did not match the shooting suspect, um, and was not an accurate person of interest. However, he has been booked into the uh county jail by Utah Valley University Police Department for obstruction of justice. We do still have an active investigation for the person of interest. This incident occurred with *** large crowd around. There was one shot fired and 11 victim. While the suspect is at large, we believe this was *** targeted attack towards one individual. This is *** tragic moment in our state and in our country. As we heal, we encourage everyone who’s struggling with news of the incident to call 988, our state mental health crisis line. In addition to that, our partners with the FBI will also be discussing other ways we can communicate through the public for tips and other information. Thank you. Good afternoon On behalf of the FBI, we extend our sincerest condolences to the family and friends of Charlie Kirk. Our thoughts are also with the people who witnessed this traumatic event. We know that you, what you experienced was very difficult. Our thoughts are with you as well. As soon as we heard about the shooting, special agents and personnel from the Salt Lake Field Office. Responded immediately. We have full resources devoted to this investigation, including tactical, operational, investigative, and intelligence. To be clear, the FBI will fully support and co-lead this investigation alongside with our partners. We’re working on setting up *** digital media tip line and as soon as it’s established, we’ll get that information out to everyone. I know there’s *** lot of questions. This is very much an active case and this investigation is in its early stages. We are following all the leads and all the evidence. If anyone has any information, please report it to the FBI or local law enforcement. Thank you. On behalf of President Tenez, who we’ve been communicating with and she’s on her way back right now, I, um, say that on behalf of Utah Valley University we are shocked and saddened by the tragic passing of Charlie Kirk. We express our sincere condolences to the Kirk family. We grieve with our students, faculty and staff who bore witness to this unspeakable tragedy. He was invited by the student group Turning Point USA to speak on our campus. We firmly believe that UVU is *** place to share ideas and to debate openly and respectfully. Any attempt to infringe on those rights has no place here. We do not condone any form of violence at UVU and seek to make our campus *** safe place for all. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us on this uh on this dark and and tragic occasion. I wanna thank our law enforcement officers who are leading this investigation, starting with Chief Long, uh, and, and his, uh, his response here with the UVU police department. Um, we’re grateful for your leadership and, uh, and your team, and again to the, the speakers that you’ve just heard from who are are co-leading this investigation. I also want to uh recognize Sheriff Mike Smith who has been an invaluable partner as uh as this investigation moves forward. I’ve been in touch with uh with with President Trump, with FBI Director Cash Patel, um, we are completely aligned with our state and federal partners as uh as we work through this case now. This is *** dark day for our state. It’s *** tragic day for our nation. I want to be very clear that this is *** political assassination. We are. Celebrating 250 years of the founding of this great nation. That founding document, the Declaration of Independence. That this this great experiment on which we embarked together 250 years ago that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. The first one of those is life. And today, *** life was taken. Charlie Kirk was first and foremost. *** husband and *** dad to two young children. He was also Very much politically involved and that’s why he was here on campus. Charlie believed in the power of free speech and debate. To shape ideas. And to persuade people. Historically Our university campuses in this nation and here in the state of Utah have been the place where truth and ideas are formulated and debated. And that’s what he does. He comes on college campuses and he debates. That is foundational to the formation of our country. To our most basic constitutional rights. And when someone takes the life of *** person. Because of their ideas or their ideals. Then that very constitutional foundation is threatened. Now we have *** person of interest in custody. The investigation is ongoing. But I want to make it crystal clear right now to whoever did this. We will find you. We will try you And we will hold you accountable to the furthest extent of the law. And I just want to remind people that we still have the death penalty here in the state of Utah. Our nation is broken. We’ve had Political assassinations recently in Minnesota. We had an attempted assassination on the governor of Pennsylvania. And we had an attempted assassination. On *** presidential candidate and former president of the United States and now current president of the United States. Nothing I say can unite us as *** country. Nothing I can say right now can fix what is broken. Nothing I can say can bring back Charlie Kirk. Our hearts are broken. We mourn. With his wife, his children, his family, his friends, we mourn as *** nation. If anyone in the sound of my voice. Celebrated even *** little bit at the news of this shooting. I would beg you To look in the mirror. And to see if you can find *** better angel in there somewhere. I don’t care what his politics are. I care that he was an American. We desperately need our country. We desperately need leaders in our country, but more than the leaders we just need every single person in this country. To think about where we are and where we want to be. To ask ourselves, is this, is this it? Is this what 250 years has wrought on us? I pray that that’s not the case. I pray that those who hated. What Charlie Cook stood for. We put down their social media and their pens. And pray for his family. And that all of us. All of us will try to find *** way to stop hating our fellow Americans. With that we’re happy to take *** few questions. The FBI director is posting that *** that *** suspect is in custody. I would just like clarification. Do you or do you not have *** suspected shooter? We have *** person of interest in custody that is being interviewed right now. We do not that is not George Zim. That is correct. Are you still searching or looking for another shooter or anybody else related to this? Yes, we are actively looking for anyone and everyone who has any any possible information relating to the shooting. Can you tell us details about the suspect being taken into custody, where, you know, how long ago. We, we cannot at this point, but we will get you that information when when we can. Is there believed to be *** second individual involved in the shooting? At this point there is no information that would lead us to believe that there is *** second person involved. Can you guys talk. Um, we. Do you want to talk about what we know there? Yeah. The only information we have on on the suspect, uh, the possible shooter is taken from closed circuit TV here on campus. Um, we do have that we’re, we’re analyzing it, um, but it is security camera footage so you can, you can, uh, kind of guess what the, what the quality of that is, um, but we do know, uh, dressed in, in all, all dark clothing, uh, but we don’t have *** much better description other than that. The shot came from here on campus, um, from, uh, *** location, um. And *** Uh, potentially from *** roof, yes, and longer distance shot from *** roof. So to clarify with the security camera footage you have and the personal interest that’s in custody, do those, does that match up? That’s what we’re trying to decipher right now. Did the FBI or DHS have anything on the threat for this morning? I can’t speak I’ll just say that the investigation is ongoing and as soon as we have further information, we will be sure to release it. Any indications of foreign intelligence involvement? As of now I can’t comment on any of that. Can you talk *** little about the security of the event itself, but who was there security wise and, and what happens on these kind of events. So my name is Jeff Long. I’m the police chief here at UVU, and I’ll tell you right now we’re devastated. We’re *** small, uh, small police department. Uh, we have *** very large campus. We have over 40,000 students, and we love our students. Uh, we love our visitors and we’re, we’re devastated by what happened today. This is the police chief’s nightmare. Um, I’m, I’m very saddened for the Kirk family. um, I know his, uh. His wife and parents, uh, found out about this, you know, obviously he’s away from home. He’s here in Utah they find out, uh, by police officer, uh, that that visits their home. That’s tragic. Nobody wants that, but I can tell you about our venue today. This was an open venue. This is outside. Uh, we did have, um, 6 officers working in that event. Um, we had, uh, probably over 3000 people that were in attendance, um, it sat down in kind of *** bowl area here on the central campus. We have *** waterfall area. And so he was uh kind of in *** *** lower area, uh, surrounded by uh by buildings, um, you know, we, we had, um, uh, some plain clothes police officers that were in the crowd as well, you know, we trained for these things and and you think you, you, you have things covered and um. You know, these things, um, you, you know, unfortunately they happen. You try to get, you try to get your bases covered and unfortunately today we didn’t and because of that we had this tragic incident, so we did have officers there. We had, uh, Charlie Kirk’s team, um, he has *** security team that travels with him and they were here with him when, when he, when he was shot. I’m sorry, the recovered. Um, I, at this point, I, I, I can’t disclose that. I was shot. There was *** question being asked about mass shooting. Was that person apprehended? And do you know who asked that question? Say the question again. I don’t know if I understand what you’re saying. When Charlie Kirk was shot, he was answering *** question about mass shootings specifically. Was that person apprehended and do you know who asked that question? Uh, I do not, we do not have that at this moment. ladies and gentlemen, we have time for just one more question, so thank you. Yeah, um, *** question for the chief as well, um, was it your team or Kirk’s team or *** combination of both that kind of set the security protocol for the event? So we worked together, you know, he has his team and and they do this all over the country we all know that this is not uncommon for them uh they’re very comfortable on campuses and I was coordinating with his lead security guy and, um, uh, so yeah, we were working together. Was this *** sharpshooter type shot? Ladies and gentlemen, that’s that’s, um, those are all the questions that will be answered today um again, thank you for for covering this. uh, we will be, uh, we’ll be updating you as soon as we have additional information through uh through normal channels working with law enforcement again our. Our deepest condolences uh to the uh to the Kirk family and uh and to the students who were who were there today um and uh I would, I would just ask everyone everywhere to please pray for their family and uh and to pray for our country and we need it now more than ever thank you.
Who is Charlie Kirk? The conservative activist shot at Utah Valley University
Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and Donald Trump ally, was fatally shot at an event at Utah Valley University, President Trump confirmed.Video above: Utah officials give first news conference after Charlie Kirk shootingKirk is a well-known political activist who helped found conservative youth organization Turning Point USA. He has millions of followers on social media and is considered one of the most popular conservative media personalities. A backer of Trump during the president’s initial 2016 run, Kirk took Turning Point from one of a constellation of well-funded conservative groups to the center of the right-of-center universe.Turning Point’s political wing helped run get-out-the-vote for Trump’s 2024 campaign, trying to energize disaffected conservatives who rarely vote. Trump won Arizona, Turning Point’s home state, by five percentage points after narrowly losing it in 2020. The group is known for its flamboyant events that often feature strobe lighting and pyrotechnics. It claims more than 250,000 student members.Kirk is known for attending events at high schools and colleges across the country while advocating for conservative views.Because of this, Kirk is seen by some as a controversial figure, as he tends to argue with people who do not agree with his points of view. He often records these arguments and posts them to social media for people to discuss. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and Donald Trump ally, was fatally shot at an event at Utah Valley University, President Trump confirmed.
Video above: Utah officials give first news conference after Charlie Kirk shooting
Kirk is a well-known political activist who helped found conservative youth organization Turning Point USA. He has millions of followers on social media and is considered one of the most popular conservative media personalities.
A backer of Trump during the president’s initial 2016 run, Kirk took Turning Point from one of a constellation of well-funded conservative groups to the center of the right-of-center universe.
Turning Point’s political wing helped run get-out-the-vote for Trump’s 2024 campaign, trying to energize disaffected conservatives who rarely vote. Trump won Arizona, Turning Point’s home state, by five percentage points after narrowly losing it in 2020. The group is known for its flamboyant events that often feature strobe lighting and pyrotechnics. It claims more than 250,000 student members.
Kirk is known for attending events at high schools and colleges across the country while advocating for conservative views.
Because of this, Kirk is seen by some as a controversial figure, as he tends to argue with people who do not agree with his points of view. He often records these arguments and posts them to social media for people to discuss.
BOULDER, Colo. — Students within the Boulder Valley School District are helping combat the affordable housing crisis while also earning school credit.
Denver7 first told you about the Boulder MOD project in 2022, when the City of Boulder and Boulder Valley School District were working together on building a factory. Today, the now-up-and-running factory is far from what you’d find at a typical high school wood shop class.
“I think it’s absolutely amazing that we’ve come together and built this,” said Elan Castillo-Veltman, a senior at Centaurus High School and a second-year student at the Boulder MOD.
Read our previous coverage in the story below:
Local
Boulder students could soon be building modular houses
Inside the factory, students are building modular homes. The prefabricated buildings are constructed inside the factory and then delivered to their location, according to the City of Boulder.
“When we look at a home that is going to appraise at $750,000 or $850,000, and we sell that home to a family at $250,000 or $350,000, that gap has to be made up,” explained Dan McColley, the executive director of Habitat for Humanity Flatirons.
Denver7
Pictured: Denver7’s Danielle Kreutter speaking with Dan McColley, the executive director of Habitat for Humanity Flatirons
That gap can be filled in various ways, including donations and volunteer labor, which is received through the Boulder MOD.
“While we’re doing that, we’re training the next generation of construction professionals,” said McColley.
The students receive school credit and hands-on experience.
Denver7
The benefits for some extend far beyond the classroom. Castillo-Veltman was able to connect with his future employer, a solar energy company, through his involvement in the program.
“Now I can literally leave the school and go right into a job,” he said.
The modular homes will eventually be moved to the Poderosa Mobile Home Park in North Boulder, and the residents there will soon be homeowners.
“They’ll move out of that mobile home, they’ll move into one of these homes, have a much better life,” McColley said. “Live in a home without water infiltration, without rust, without mold.”
The Follow Up
What do you want Denver7 to follow up on? Is there a story, topic or issue you want us to revisit? Let us know with the contact form below.
Only 17% of people have a college education in a small town in Florida, yet a local high school is ensuring 100% of its students have the option to attend college. Cristian Benavides reports.
The U.S. Department of Education said on Thursday that it found Denver Public Schools violated Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in education, by establishing all-gender bathrooms and allowing students to use bathrooms that match their gender identity rather than their biological sex.
The department’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation in January, shortly after President Donald Trump returned to the White House, into Denver’s East High School after the school district converted a girl’s bathroom into an all-gender restroom while leaving another bathroom on the same floor just for boys.
The district has said the change was made after a student-led process and that the bathroom had 12-foot-tall partitions around the toilets for privacy and security.
The U.S. Department of Education said it found Denver Public Schools violated Title IX.(AP)
A second all-gender restroom was later on the same floor, which the district said was done to address concerns of unfairness. The district said at the time that students would also continue to have access to gender-specific bathrooms and single-stall, all-gender restrooms.
The federal government said it sent the district a proposed resolution that includes four conditions to which it must agree within the next 10 days to resolve the matter and avoid facing the risk of “imminent enforcement action.”
“Denver Public Schools violated Title IX and its implementing regulations by converting a sex-segregated restroom designated for girls in East High School to an ‘all-gender’ facility and by allowing students to use the high school’s intimate facilities on the basis of their ‘gender identity’ rather than their biological sex,” Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary of the department’s Office for Civil Rights, said in a statement.
The district has said the all-gender bathrooms were created after a student-led process.(AP)
“As a result, the District is creating a hostile environment for its students by endangering their safety, privacy, and dignity while denying them access to equal educational activities and opportunities,” he continued. “Denver is free to endorse a self-defeating gender ideology, but it is not free to accept federal taxpayer funds and harm its students in violation of Title IX. The Trump Administration will work relentlessly to hold accountable school districts that harbor the ideological fanatics and policies that sully students’ educational experience with sex discrimination.”
The proposed resolution would require the district to redesignate all-gender bathrooms back to sex-designated multi-stall restrooms, scrap any policies or guidance allowing students to access bathrooms based on gender identity rather than biological sex and adopt “biology-based definitions” for the words “male” and “female” in all policies and practices related to Title IX.
The district must also issue a memorandum to its schools affirming that they must provide access to bathrooms that “protect the privacy, dignity and safety of students and are comparably accessible to each sex.” It is also required to state that Title IX compliance ensures girls may not be discriminated against in any education program or activity.
Fox News Digital reached out to Denver Public Schools for comment.
The federal government said it had sent the district a proposed resolution to which it must agree within the next 10 days to resolve the matter.(J. David Ake/Getty Images)
Under the Trump administration, federal officials have sought to target school districts for policies allowing students to use bathrooms or participate on sports teams that correspond with their gender identity.
The president signed an executive order in February to block transgender girls from participating on sports teams that do not match their biological sex.
Earlier this week, House Republicans introduced legislation to prohibit transgender girls from bathrooms or sports teams or restrooms that align with their gender identity and not their biological sex.
At ISTE this summer, I lost count of how many times I heard “AI” as the answer to every educational challenge imaginable. Student engagement? AI-powered personalization! Teacher burnout? AI lesson planning! Parent communication? AI-generated newsletters! Chronic absenteeism? AI predictive models! But after moderating a panel on improving the high school experience, which focused squarely on human-centered approaches, one district administrator approached us with gratitude: “Thank you for NOT saying AI is the solution.”
That moment crystallized something important that’s getting lost in our rush toward technological fixes: While we’re automating attendance tracking and building predictive models, we’re missing the fundamental truth that showing up to school is a human decision driven by authentic relationships.
The real problem: Students going through the motions
The scope of student disengagement is staggering. Challenge Success, affiliated with Stanford’s Graduate School of Education, analyzed data from over 270,000 high school students across 13 years and found that only 13 percent are fully engaged in their learning. Meanwhile, 45 percent are what researchers call “doing school,” going through the motions behaviorally but finding little joy or meaning in their education.
This isn’t a post-pandemic problem–it’s been consistent for over a decade. And it directly connects to attendance issues. The California Safe and Supportive Schools initiative has identified school connectedness as fundamental to attendance. When high schoolers have even one strong connection with a teacher or staff member who understands their life beyond academics, attendance improves dramatically.
The districts that are addressing this are using data to enable more meaningful adult connections, not just adding more tech. One California district saw 32 percent of at-risk students improve attendance after implementing targeted, relationship-based outreach. The key isn’t automated messages, but using data to help educators identify disengaged students early and reach out with genuine support.
This isn’t to discount the impact of technology. AI tools can make project-based learning incredibly meaningful and exciting, exactly the kind of authentic engagement that might tempt chronically absent high schoolers to return. But AI works best when it amplifies personal bonds, not seeks to replace them.
Mapping student connections
Instead of starting with AI, start with relationship mapping. Harvard’s Making Caring Common project emphasizes that “there may be nothing more important in a child’s life than a positive and trusting relationship with a caring adult.” Rather than leave these connections to chance, relationship mapping helps districts systematically identify which students lack that crucial adult bond at school.
The process is straightforward: Staff identify students who don’t have positive relationships with any school adults, then volunteers commit to building stronger connections with those students throughout the year. This combines the best of both worlds: Technology provides the insights about who needs support, and authentic relationships provide the motivation to show up.
True school-family partnerships to combat chronic absenteeism need structures that prioritize student consent and agency, provide scaffolding for underrepresented students, and feature a wide range of experiences. It requires seeing students as whole people with complex lives, not just data points in an attendance algorithm.
The choice ahead
As we head into another school year, we face a choice. We can continue chasing the shiny startups, building ever more sophisticated systems to track and predict student disengagement. Or we can remember that attendance is ultimately about whether a young person feels connected to something meaningful at school.
The most effective districts aren’t choosing between high-tech and high-touch–they’re using technology to enable more meaningful personal connections. They’re using AI to identify students who need support, then deploying caring adults to provide it. They’re automating the logistics so teachers can focus on relationships.
That ISTE administrator was right to be grateful for a non-AI solution. Because while artificial intelligence can optimize many things, it can’t replace the fundamental human need to belong, to feel seen, and to believe that showing up matters.
The solution to chronic absenteeism is in our relationships, not our servers. It’s time we started measuring and investing in both.
Dr. Kara Stern, SchoolStatus
Dr. Kara Stern is Director of Education for SchoolStatus, a portfolio of data-driven solutions that help K-12 districts improve attendance, strengthen family communication, support teacher growth, and simplify daily operations. A former teacher, principal, and head of school, she holds a Ph.D. in Teaching & Learning from NYU.
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La joven de 18 años de Houston iba a comenzar clases este otoño en la Universidad de Texas en Tyler, donde le habían concedido una beca de 10.000 dólares al año. Esperaba que eso le permitiera alcanzar su sueño: un doctorado en Química, seguido de una carrera como profesora o investigadora.
“Y entonces se produjo el cambio en la matrícula estatal, y fue entonces cuando supe con certeza que tenía que dar un giro”, dijo Ximena. (The Hechinger Report se refiere a ella solo por su nombre de pila porque ella teme represalias por su situación migratoria).
Aunque Ximena pasó sus primeros años en el norte de México, la mayoría de sus recuerdos son de después de mudarse a Estados Unidos con su padre. Ha asistido a escuelas en Estados Unidos desde el jardín de infancia y, para ella, el 12.º grado consistió principalmente en explicar conceptos avanzados de química a sus compañeros de clase y dirigir laboratorios como asistente de enseñanza.
Pero en junio, los sueños de Ximena se vieron truncados cuando la oficina del fiscal general de Texas y la administración Trump colaboraron para poner fin a las disposiciones de una ley estatal que ofrecía a miles de estudiantes indocumentados como ella tasas de matrícula más bajas en las universidades públicas de Texas. Los funcionarios estatales y federales argumentaron con éxito ante los tribunales que la política vigente desde hacía mucho tiempo discriminaba a los ciudadanos estadounidenses de otros estados que pagaban una tasa más alta. Ese razonamiento se ha replicado ahora en demandas similares contra Kentucky, Oklahoma y Minnesota, como parte de una ofensiva más amplia contra el acceso de los inmigrantes a la educación pública.
En la UT Tyler, la matrícula y las tasas estatales para el próximo año académico ascienden a un total de 9.736 dólares, frente a los más de 25.000 dólares que pagan los estudiantes de fuera del estado. Ximena y su familia no podían permitirse el elevado coste de la matrícula, por lo que la joven se retiró. En su lugar, se matriculó en el Houston Community College, donde los costos para los estudiantes de fuera del estado son de 227 dólares por hora semestral, casi tres veces más que la tarifa para los residentes en el distrito. La escuela solo ofrece clases básicas de química de nivel universitario, por lo que, para prepararse para un doctorado o para trabajar en investigaciones especializadas, Ximena seguirá necesitando encontrar la manera de pagar una universidad de cuatro años en el futuro.
Su difícil situación es precisamente lo que los legisladores estatales de ambos partidos políticos esperaban evitar cuando aprobaron la Texas Dream Act o Ley de Sueños de Texas, una ley de 2001 que no solo abrió las puertas de la educación superior a los estudiantes indocumentados, sino que también tenía por objeto reforzar la economía y la mano de obra de Texas a largo plazo. Con esa ley, Texas se convirtió en el primero de más de dos docenas de estados en aplicar la matrícula estatal a los estudiantes indocumentados, y durante casi 24 años, esta política histórica se mantuvo intacta. Los legisladores conservadores propusieron repetidamente su derogación, pero a pesar de los años de control de un solo partido en la legislatura estatal, no hubo suficientes republicanos que apoyaran la derogación, incluso esta primavera, días antes de que la oficina del fiscal general de Texas y el Departamento de Justicia federal decidieran ponerle fin.
Ahora, a medida que se acerca el semestre de otoño, los estudiantes inmigrantes están sopesando si darse de baja de sus cursos o esperar a que se aclare cómo les afecta el acuerdo de consentimiento firmado por el estado y el Departamento de Justicia. Los defensores de los inmigrantes temen que las universidades de Texas estén excluyendo a posibles alumnos que se encuentran en situación legal y siguen reuniendo los requisitos para pagar la matrícula estatal a pesar de la sentencia judicial, incluidos los beneficiarios del programa de Acción Diferida para los Llegados en la Infancia (DACA), los solicitantes de asilo y los que tienen Estatus de Protección Temporal o TPS, porque el personal de la universidad carece de conocimientos sobre inmigración y no ha recibido directrices claras sobre quién debe pagar exactamente la matrícula más alta.
En el Austin Community College, que presta servicio a un área tan grande como el estado de Connecticut, los miembros del consejo de administración no están seguros de cómo aplicar correctamente la sentencia judicial. Mientras esperan respuestas, hasta ahora han decidido no enviar cartas a sus estudiantes solicitándoles información confidencial para determinar las tasas de matrícula.
Una valla publicitaria que promociona el Austin Community College en español se encuentra en una autopista que conduce a Lockhart, Texas. Credit: Sergio Flores for The Hechinger Report
“Esta confusión perjudicará inevitablemente a los estudiantes, porque lo que vemos es que, ante la falta de información y la presencia del miedo y la ansiedad, los estudiantes optarán por no continuar con la educación superior o se esconderán en las sombras y se sentirán como miembros marginados de la comunidad”, afirmó Manuel González, vicepresidente del consejo de administración del ACC.
Por su parte, los expertos en políticas públicas advierten de que la mano de obra de Texas podría verse afectada, ya que los jóvenes con talento, muchos de los cuales han cursado toda su educación en el sistema de escuelas públicas del estado, ya no podrán permitirse los títulos de asociado y licenciatura que les permitirían seguir carreras que ayudarían a impulsar sus economías locales. En virtud de la Ley Texas Dream, los beneficiarios estaban obligados a comprometerse a solicitar la residencia permanente legal lo antes posible, lo que les daba la oportunidad de mantener puestos de trabajo relacionados con sus títulos. Sin la condición de residentes, es probable que sigan trabajando, pero en empleos peor remunerados y menos visibles.
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“Es una visión muy cortoplacista en lo que respecta al bienestar del estado de Texas”, afirmó Barbara Hines, antigua profesora de Derecho que ayudó a los legisladores a redactar la Ley Texas Dream.
A principios de siglo, casi dos décadas después de que los niños indocumentados obtuvieran el derecho a asistir a la escuela pública en Estados Unidos, los estudiantes inmigrantes y sus defensores seguían frustrados porque la universidad seguía estando fuera de su alcance.
Para el mayor general retirado de la Guardia Nacional del Ejército Rick Noriega, un demócrata que en ese momento formaba parte de la Legislatura de Texas, esa realidad le tocó de cerca cuando se enteró de que un joven trabajador de su distrito quería matricularse en el community college local para estudiar mecánica aeronáutica, pero no podía permitirse pagar la matrícula fuera del estado.
Noriega llamó a la oficina del rector de la escuela, que pudo proporcionar fondos para que el estudiante se inscribiera. Pero esa experiencia le llevó a preguntarse: ¿cuántos niños más de su distrito se enfrentaban a las mismas barreras para acceder a la educación superior?
Así que colaboró con un sociólogo para encuestar a los estudiantes de las escuelas secundarias locales sobre el problema, que resultó ser muy frecuente. Y el distrito de Noriega no era una excepción. En un estado que durante mucho tiempo ha tenido una de las mayores poblaciones de inmigrantes no autorizados del país, los políticos de todos los partidos conocían a electores, amigos o familiares afectados y querían ayudar. Una vez que Noriega decidió proponer la legislación, un republicano, Fred Hill, pidió ser coautor del proyecto de ley.
Para los defensores de la Ley Texas Dream, el mejor argumento a favor de la matrícula estatal para los estudiantes indocumentados era de carácter económico. Después de que el estado ya hubiera invertido en estos estudiantes durante la educación pública K-12, tenía sentido seguir desarrollándolos para que, con el tiempo, pudieran ayudar a satisfacer las necesidades de mano de obra de Texas.
“Habíamos gastado todo ese dinero en estos jóvenes, y ellos habían hecho todo lo que les pedimos —en muchos casos, eran superestrellas, los mejores de su promoción y cosas por el estilo— y luego se topaban con este obstáculo, que era la educación superior, cuyo costo era prohibitivo”, dijo Noriega.
La legislación fue aprobada fácilmente por la Cámara de Representantes de Texas, que en ese momento estaba controlada por los demócratas, pero el Senado, liderado por los republicanos, se mostró menos complaciente.
“Ni siquiera pude conseguir una audiencia. Me dijeron rotundamente: “No, esto no va a salir adelante””, afirmó Leticia Van de Putte, la entonces senadora estatal que patrocinó la legislación en su cámara.
Las nubes cubren el cielo detrás de la torre de la Universidad de Texas en Austin. Credit: Sergio Flores for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Para persuadir a sus colegas republicanos, añadió varias restricciones, entre ellas la de exigir a los estudiantes indocumentados que vivieran en Texas durante tres años antes de terminar la escuela secundaria o recibir un GED. (Se estimó que tres años era el tiempo medio que tardaría una familia en pagar suficientes impuestos estatales para compensar la diferencia entre la matrícula estatal y la matrícula fuera del estado). También incluyó la cláusula que obligaba a los estudiantes indocumentados que accedían a la matrícula estatal a firmar una declaración jurada en la que se comprometían a solicitar la tarjeta de residencia tan pronto como pudieran.
Van de Putte también recurrió a los grupos empresariales de Texas para insistir en los argumentos económicos a favor del proyecto de ley. Y convenció a la comunidad empresarial para que pagara los autobuses que llevarían a pastores evangélicos conservadores latinos de Dallas, San Antonio, Houston y otras zonas del estado a Austin, para que pudieran llamar a las puertas en apoyo de la legislación y rezar con los senadores republicanos y su personal.
Después de eso, la Ley Texas Dream fue aprobada por abrumadora mayoría en el Senado estatal en mayo de 2001, y el entonces gobernador Rick Perry, republicano, la promulgó como ley al mes siguiente.
Sin embargo, en 2007, incluso cuando los defensores de los derechos de los inmigrantes, los grupos religiosos y las asociaciones empresariales formaron una coalición para defender a los inmigrantes contra las políticas estatales perjudiciales, la legislatura de Texas comenzó a presentar una serie de propuestas generalmente contrarias a los inmigrantes. En 2010, las encuestas sugerían que los tejanos se oponían de manera abrumadora a que los estudiantes indocumentados pagaran las tasas de matrícula estatales.
En 2012, un nuevo grupo de políticos de derecha fue elegido para ocupar cargos públicos, muchos de ellos opuestos filosóficamente a la ley y muy críticos al respecto. La defensa de la política por parte de Perry se volvió en su contra durante las primarias presidenciales republicanas de 2012, cuando su campaña fue objeto de críticas después de que, durante un debate, dijera a los oponentes de la igualdad en las matrículas: “No creo que tengan corazón”.
Aún así, ninguno de los muchos proyectos de ley presentados a lo largo de los años para derogar la Ley Texas Dream tuvo éxito. E incluso el gobernador Greg Abbott, un republicano partidario de la línea dura en materia de inmigración, se mostró en ocasiones ambiguo sobre la política, y su portavoz afirmó en 2013 que Abbott creía que “el objetivo” de la matrícula estatal independientemente del estatus migratorio era “noble”.
Los observadores legislativos afirman que algunos republicanos del estado siguen apoyando la política. “Es una cuestión bipartidista. Hay republicanos que apoyan la matrícula estatal”, afirmó Luis Figueroa, director de asuntos legislativos de la organización sin fines de lucro Every Texan, dedicada a la investigación y la defensa de políticas públicas. “Pero no pueden decirlo públicamente”.
Mientras tanto, a medida que el tema se volvía más controvertido políticamente en Texas, la Texas Dream Act acabó amplificando un debate más amplio que finalmente condujo a la creación del DACA, el programa de la era Obama que ha dado a algunos inmigrantes indocumentados acceso a protecciones contra la deportación y permisos de trabajo.
Incluso antes del DACA, muchos inmigrantes trabajaban, y los que siguen sin papeles a menudo siguen haciéndolo, ya sea como contratistas independientes para empleadores que hacen la vista gorda ante su estatus migratorio o creando sus propios negocios. Un estudio de mayo de 2020 reveló que los residentes no autorizados constituyen el 8,2 % de la población activa del estado y que, por cada dólar gastado en servicios públicos para ellos, el estado de Texas recuperaba 1,21 dólares en ingresos.
Pero sin el permiso legal inmediato para trabajar, los graduados universitarios indocumentados que se habían beneficiado de la Ley Dream de Texas se vieron limitados a pesar de sus títulos. A medida que la lucha por la equidad en las matrículas se extendía a otros estados, también lo hacía la lucha por una solución legal que apoyara a los estudiantes beneficiados.
Cuando estos jóvenes, cariñosamente apodados “soñadores o dreamers”, pasaron a primer plano para defenderse más públicamente, su difícil situación despertó simpatía. En 2017, el mismo año en que Trump comenzó su primer mandato, las encuestas dieron un giro y mostraron que la mayoría de los tejanos apoyaba las matrículas estatales para los estudiantes indocumentados. Más recientemente, las investigaciones han indicado una y otra vez que los estadounidenses apoyan una vía para que los residentes indocumentados traídos a Estados Unidos cuando eran niños obtengan la residencia legal.
Pero los argumentos en contra de la matrícula estatal, independientemente del estatus migratorio, también ganaron popularidad: los críticos sostenían que la política es injusta para los ciudadanos estadounidenses de otros estados que tienen que pagar tasas más altas, o que los estudiantes indocumentados están ocupando plazas en escuelas competitivas que podrían ser ocupadas por estadounidenses.
El Departamento de Justicia se apoyó en una retórica similar en la demanda que acabó con la igualdad en las matrículas en Texas, alegando que la ley estatal queda invalidada por la legislación federal de 1996 que prohíbe a los inmigrantes indocumentados acceder a la matrícula estatal basada en la residencia. Ese argumento se ha convertido en un modelo, ya que la administración Trump ha presentado demandas para desmantelar las políticas de matrícula estatal de otros estados para los residentes indocumentados.
En Kentucky, el fiscal general del estado, el republicano Russell Coleman, ha seguido los pasos de Texas y ha recomendado que el consejo estatal que supervisa la educación superior retire su normativa que permite el acceso a la matrícula estatal en lugar de luchar por defenderla en los tribunales.
Al mismo tiempo, la administración Trump ha encontrado otras formas de recortar las oportunidades de educación superior para los estudiantes indocumentados, revocando una política que les había ayudado a participar en programas de formación profesional, técnica y para adultos, e investigando a las universidades por ofrecerles becas.
En Texas, el repentino cambio de política con respecto a las matrículas estatales está causando caos. Las dos universidades más grandes del estado, Texas A&M y la Universidad de Texas, están utilizando diferentes directrices para decidir qué estudiantes deben pagar las tasas fuera del estado.
“Creo que las universidades son las que se encuentran en esta situación realmente difícil”, dijo Figueroa. “No son expertos en inmigración. Han recibido muy poca orientación sobre cómo interpretar el decreto de consentimiento”.
En medio de tanta confusión, Figueroa predijo que es probable que surjan futuras demandas. Los estudiantes y organizaciones afectados ya han presentado mociones ante los tribunales para defender tardíamente la Ley Texas Dream contra el Departamento de Justicia.
Mientras tanto, los jóvenes estudiantes se enfrentan a decisiones difíciles. Una estudiante, que pidió permanecer en el anonimato debido a su condición de inmigrante indocumentada, estaba leyendo las noticias en su teléfono antes de acostarse cuando vio un titular sobre el resultado del caso judicial del Departamento de Justicia.
“Me eché a llorar porque, como alguien que ha luchado por salir adelante en sus estudios, ahora que estoy en la educación superior, ha sido una bendición”, dijo. “Así que lo primero que pensé fue: “¿Qué voy a hacer ahora? ¿Hacia dónde va mi futuro? ¿Los planes que tenía para mí tendrán que detenerse por completo?””.
La joven, que vive en San Antonio desde que tenía 9 meses, se había matriculado en seis cursos para el otoño en la Universidad Texas A&M-San Antonio y no estaba segura de si abandonarlos. Sería su último semestre antes de obtener sus títulos en psicología y sociología, pero no podía imaginar pagar la matrícula fuera del estado.
“Estoy en el limbo”, dijo, como “muchos estudiantes en este momento”.
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ARLINGTON, Wash. — A student at Arlington High School will be allowed to return to classes when they begin next week. At least that is the plan for now according to Arlington Public Schools.
A 14-year-old student was caught at school in February with a handgun that reportedly had a bullet in the chamber and also had a magazine full of bullets. That student was expelled and charged with a felony.
Fast forward to the 2025-2026 school year and the district says the student will be allowed to attend classes, but will have special rules to follow including the fact that they may not bring a backpack to school. They’ll also be monitored daily.
Many of the social media outlests have featured chatter from concerend parents.
The 18-year-old from Houston was going to start college in the fall at the University of Texas at Tyler, where she had been awarded $10,000 a year in scholarships. That, she hoped, would set her up for her dream: a Ph.D. in chemistry, followed by a career as a professor or researcher.
“And then the change to in-state tuition happened, and that’s when I knew for sure that I had to pivot,” said Ximena, who was born in Mexico but attended schools stateside since kindergarten. (The Hechinger Report is referring to her by only her first name because she fears retaliation for her immigration status.)
In June, the Texas attorney general’s office and the Trump administration worked together to end the provisions in a state law that had offered thousands of undocumented students like her lower in-state tuition rates at Texas public colleges. State and federal officials successfully argued in court that the long-standing policy discriminated against U.S. citizens from other states who paid a higher rate. That rationale has now been replicated in similar lawsuits against Kentucky, Oklahoma and Minnesota — part of a broader offensive against immigrants’ access to public education.
At UT Tyler, in-state tuition and fees for the upcoming academic year total $9,736, compared to more than $25,000 for out-of-state students. Ximena and her family couldn’t afford the higher tuition bill, so she withdrew. Instead, she enrolled at Houston Community College, where out-of-state costs are $227 per semester hour, nearly three times the in-district rate. The school offers only basic college-level chemistry classes, so to set herself up for a doctorate or original research, Ximena will still need to find a way to pay for a four-year university down the line.
Her predicament is exactly what state lawmakers from both political parties had hoped to avoid when they passed the Texas Dream Act, 2001 legislation that not only opened doors to higher education for undocumented students but was also meant to bolster Texas’s economy and its workforce long-term. With that law, Texas became the first of more than two dozen states to implement in-state tuition for undocumented students, and for nearly 24 years, the landmark policy remained intact. Conservative lawmakers repeatedly proposed to repeal it, but despite years of single-party control in the state legislature, not enough Republicans embraced repeal even as recently as this spring, days before the Texas attorney general’s office and the federal Department of Justice moved to end it.
Now, as the fall semester approaches, immigrant students are weighing whether to disenroll from their courses or await clarity on how the consent agreement entered into by the state and DOJ affects them.
Immigration advocates are worried that Texas colleges and universities are boxing out potential attendees who are lawfully present and still qualify for in-state tuition despite the court ruling — including recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, asylum applicants and Temporary Protected Status holders — because university personnel lack immigration expertise and haven’t been given clear guidelines on exactly who needs to pay the higher tuition rate.
At Austin Community College, which serves an area as large as Connecticut, members of the board of trustees are unsure how to accurately implement the ruling. As they await answers, they’ve so far decided against sending letters asking their students for sensitive information in order to determine tuition rates.
“This confusion will inevitably harm students because what we find is that in the absence of information and in the presence of fear and anxiety, students will opt to not continue higher education,” said Manuel Gonzalez, vice chair of the ACC board of trustees.
A billboard promoting Austin Community College in Spanish sits on a highway that leads to Lockhart, Texas. Credit: Sergio Flores for The Hechinger Report
Policy experts, meanwhile, warn that Texas’s workforce could suffer as talented young people, many of whom have spent their entire education in the state’s public school system, will no longer be able to afford the associate’s and bachelor’s degrees that would allow them to pursue careers that would help propel their local economies. Under the Texas Dream Act, beneficiaries were required to commit to applying for lawful permanent residence as soon as possible, giving them the opportunity to hold down jobs related to their degrees. Without resident status, it’s likely they’ll still work — just more in lower-paying, under-the-radar jobs.
“It’s so short-sighted in terms of the welfare of the state of Texas,”said Barbara Hines, a former law school professor who helped legislators craft the Texas Dream Act.
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For retired Army National Guard Maj. Gen. Rick Noriega, a Democrat who served in the Texas Legislature at the time, that reality hit close to home when he learned of a young yard worker in his district who wanted to enroll at the local community college for aviation mechanics but couldn’t afford out-of-state tuition.
Noriega called the school chancellor’s office, which was able to provide funding for the student to attend. But that experience led him to wonder: How many more kids in his district were running up against the same barriers to higher education?
So he worked with a sociologist to poll students at local high schools about the problem, which turned out to be widespread. And Noriega’s district wasn’t an outlier. In a state that has long had one of the nation’s largest unauthorized immigrant populations, politicians across the partisan divide knew affected constituents, friends or family members and wanted to help. Once Noriega decided to propose legislation, a Republican, Fred Hill, asked to serve as a joint author on the bill.
To proponents of the Texas Dream Act, the best argument in support of in-state tuition for undocumented students was an economic one. After the state had already invested in these students during K-12 public schooling, it made sense to continue developing them so they could eventually help meet Texas’ workforce needs.
“We’d spent all this money on these kids, and they’d done everything that we asked them to do — in many instances superstars and valedictorians and the like — and then they hit this wall, which was higher education that was cost prohibitive,” said Noriega.
The legislation easily passed the Texas House of Representatives, which was Democratic-controlled at the time, but the Republican-led Senate was less accommodating.
“I couldn’t even get a hearing,’” said Leticia Van de Putte, the then-state senator who sponsored the legislation in her chamber.
To persuade her Republican colleagues, she added several restrictions, including requiring undocumented students to live in Texas for three years before finishing high school or receiving a GED. (Three years was estimated as the average time it would take a family to pay enough in state taxes to make up the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition.) She also included the clause mandating that undocumented students who accessed in-state tuition sign an affidavit pledging to pursue green cards as soon as they were able.
Van de Putte also turned to Texas business groups to hammer home the economic case for the bill. And she convinced the business community to pay for buses to bring Latino evangelical conservative pastors from Dallas, San Antonio, Houston and other areas of the state to Austin, so they could knock on doors in support of the legislation and pray with Republican senators and their staff.
After that, the Texas Dream Act overwhelmingly passed the state Senate in May 2001, and then-Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, signed it into law the following month.
Yet by 2007, even as immigrant rights advocates, faith-based groups and business associations formed a coalition to defend immigrants against harmful state policies, the Texas legislature was starting to introduce a wave of generally anti-immigrant proposals. In 2010, polling suggested Texans overwhelmingly opposed allowing undocumented students to pay in-state tuition rates.
By 2012, a new slew of right-wing politicians was elected to office, many philosophically opposed to the law — and loud about it. Perry’s defense of the policy had come back to haunt him during the 2012 Republican presidential primary, when his campaign was dogged by criticism after he told opponents of tuition equity during a debate, “I don’t think you have a heart.”
Still, none of the many bills introduced over the years to repeal the Texas Dream Act were successful. And even Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican border hawk, at times equivocated on the policy, with his spokesperson saying in 2013 that Abbott believed “the objective” of in-state tuition regardless of immigration status was “noble.”
Legislative observers say that some Republicans in the state continue to support the policy. “It’s a bipartisan issue. There are Republicans in support of in-state tuition,” said Luis Figueroa, senior director of legislative affairs at the public policy research and advocacy nonprofit Every Texan. “They cannot publicly state it.”
Meanwhile, as the topic became more politically charged in Texas, the Texas Dream Act ended up amplifying a larger conversation that eventually led to the creation of DACA, the Obama-era program that has given some undocumented immigrants access to deportation protections and work permits.
Even before DACA, many immigrants worked, and those who remain undocumented often still do, either as independent contractors for employers that turn a blind eye to their immigration status or by starting their own businesses. A study from May 2020 found that unauthorized residents make up 8.2 percent of the state’s workforce, and for every dollar spent toward public services for them, the state of Texas recouped $1.21 in revenue.
But without the immediate legal permission to work, undocumented college graduates who had benefited from the Texas Dream Act found themselves limited despite their degrees. As the fight for tuition equity spread to other states, so did the fight for a legal solution to support the students it benefited.
When these young people — affectionately dubbed Dreamers — took center stage to more publicly advocate for themselves, their plight proved sympathetic. By 2017, the same year Trump began his first term, polling had flipped to show a plurality of Texans in support of in-state tuition for undocumented students. More recently, research has indicated time and time again that Americans support a pathway to legal status for undocumented residents brought to the U.S. as children.
But arguments against in-state tuition regardless of immigration status also grew in popularity: Critics contended that the policy is unfair to U.S. citizens from other states who have to pay higher rates, or that undocumented students are taking spots at competitive schools that could be filled by documented Americans.
The DOJ leaned on similar rhetoric in the lawsuit that killed tuition equity in Texas, saying the state law is superseded by 1996 federal legislation banning undocumented immigrants from getting in-state tuition based on residency. That argument has become a template as the Trump administration has sued to dismantle other states’ in-state tuition policies for undocumented residents.
In Kentucky, state Attorney General Russell Coleman, a Republican, has followed in Texas’ footsteps, recommending that the state council overseeing higher education withdraw its regulation allowing for access to in-state tuition instead of fighting to defend it in court.
At the same time, the Trump administration has found other ways to cut back on higher education opportunities for undocumented students, rescinding a policy that had helped them participate in career, technical and adult education programs and investigating universities for offering them scholarships.
Back in Texas, the sudden policy change regarding in-state tuition is causing chaos. Even the state’s two largest universities, Texas A&M and the University of Texas, are using different guidelines to decide which students must pay out-of-state rates.
Clouds fill the sky behind the tower at the University of Texas. Credit: Sergio Flores for The Washington Post via Getty Images
“Universities, I think, are the ones that are put in this really difficult position,” Figueroa said. “They are not immigration experts. They’ve received very little guidance about how to interpret the consent decree.”
Amid so much confusion, Figueroa predicted, future lawsuits will likely crop up. Already, affected students and organizations have filed motions in court seeking to belatedly defend the Texas Dream Act against the DOJ.
In the meantime, young scholars are facing difficult choices. One student, who asked to remain anonymous because of her undocumented immigration status, was scrolling through the news on her phone before bed when she saw a headline about the outcome of the DOJ court case.
“I burst in tears because, you know, as someone who’s been fighting to get ahead in their education, right now that I’m in higher education, it’s been a complete blessing,” she said. “So the first thing that I just thought of is ‘What am I going to do now? Where is my future heading?’ The plans that I have had going for me, are they going to have to come to a complete halt?’”
The young woman, who has lived in San Antonio since she was 9 months old, had enrolled in six courses for the fall at Texas A&M-San Antonio and wasn’t sure whether to drop them. It would be her final semester before earning her psychology and sociology degrees, but she couldn’t fathom paying for out-of-state tuition.
“I’m in the unknown,” she said, like “many students in this moment.”
Contact editor Caroline Preston at 212-870-8965, via Signal at CarolineP.83 or on email at preston@hechingerreport.org.
The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.
LOCKHART, Texas — Sometime last year, Alfonso Sifuentes was on a bus tour as part of a chamber of commerce’s efforts to map out the future of the bustling Central Texas region south of Austin where he lives and works.
There was chatter about why San Marcos, a suburb along one stretch of the Interstate 35 corridor, had little interest in a proposed expansion of Austin Community College into that area. Voters previously rejected the idea because of the property tax increase it would have required. As he swayed in his seat on the moving bus, Sifuentes, a businessman in the waste management industry who has long been involved in community development, thought about his hometown of Lockhart — like San Marcos just 30-some miles from Austin — and about the opportunities the college’s growing network of campuses could bring. Somewhere along the bus route, he made a declaration for all to hear.
“Well, if San Marcos doesn’t want it,” Sifuentes said, “Lockhart will take it.”
This November, the college is coming to voters in the Lockhart Independent School District with a proposition to begin paying into the Austin Community College taxing district. In exchange, residents would qualify for in-district tuition and trigger a long-term plan to build out college facilities in this rural stretch of Texas, which is positioning itself to tap into the economic boom flowing into the smaller communities nestled between Austin and San Antonio.
Community colleges have long played a crucial role in recovering economies. But in Lockhart, ACC’s potential expansion could serve as a case study of the role colleges can play in emerging economies as local leaders and community members eye the economic growth on the horizon.
That is, if they can convince enough of their neighbors to help pay for it.
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At the edge of two massive metropolitan areas — Austin to the north and San Antonio to the south — Caldwell County is dotted by quaint communities offering small-town living. While the streets in other small rural communities are lined by shuttered storefronts or sit in the shadow of industry long gone, local leaders pitch this as a place “where undeniable opportunity meets authentic Texas community.”
Lockhart, the county seat, is revered as the barbecue capital of Texas with an established status as a day trip destination. About 30 miles southeast of Austin, its picturesque town square hosts a regular rotation of community events, including a summer concert series on the courthouse lawn and a series of pop-ups on the first Friday of the month featuring some mix of live music, receptions at a local art gallery, and sip and strolls and cheesecake specials at the antique store.
The county’s population of roughly 50,000 residents is dwarfed by the big cities and the nearby suburban communities that often rank among the fastest growing in the country. But what the county lacks in population it makes up for with a relatively low cost of living, space to make room for industry, housing and, potentially, Austin Community College.
The potential annexation is an example of how colleges are becoming more nimble and more responsive to both emerging economies and the needs of students, said Maria Cormier, a senior research associate for the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University. But Cormier argues such expansions must be intentionally designed with equity in mind to envision multiple pathways for students so that, for example, students from marginalized backgrounds aren’t limited only to certificate-level programming. (The Hechinger Report is an independent unit of Teachers College.)
Representatives of Austin Community College speak with community members to help them learn about the institution at an event in early October in Lockhart, Texas. Voters decide in November whether to accept a tax hike in exchange for the college expanding into their rural region. Credit: Sergio Flores for The Hechinger Report
“These sorts of questions become important when colleges are proposing these kinds of expansions: To what extent are they thinking about longer-term pathways for students?” Cormier said.
ACC already partners with Lockhart ISD on an early college high school that allows students to complete transferable college credit hours while earning a high school diploma, and proponents of annexation highlight the affordable higher education opportunities it would generally provide students in the Lockhart area. But their sales pitch emphasizes what it would mean to leverage ACC for the whole community. While the share of adults with a high school degree within Lockhart ISD’s territory is roughly aligned with the state, the share who have a bachelor’s degree — just 16.8 percent — falls to about half of the state rate.
“An effort like this can never be wrong if it always is for the right reasons,” said Nick Metzler, an information technology manager and consultant who serves as the president of the Greater Lockhart for ACC political action committee, which formed to pursue the college’s expansion.
First established in 1973, ACC has steadily grown its footprint in Central Texas through annexation. Though not commonly used, a provision of Texas education law grants a community college the ability to expand its taxing district by adding territory within its designated service area. Working within a service district roughly the size of Connecticut, ACC first expanded its reach in 1985 when voters in the territory covered by the Leander Independent School District, a northern suburb of Austin, agreed to be annexed.
In the years since, neighboring communities in the Manor, Del Valle and Round Rock school districts followed with large majority votes in favor of annexation. ACC’s expansion into Austin’s southern suburbs didn’t begin until 2010, when annexation passed in the Hays Consolidated Independent School District.
The collective initiative to bring ACC to Lockhart has been the topic of discussion for many years, but the current effort was formally triggered by a community-led petition that required locals to gather signatures from at least 5 percent of registered voters. Fanning out at youth sporting events, school functions and other community gatherings, PAC members met with neighbors who indicated their children would be the first in their families to go to college, if they could afford it. Others were adults excited by the prospect of trade programs and certifications they could pursue and the transformative change it could bring to their families as new industries move into Caldwell County.
A billboard promoting Austin Community College in Spanish sits on a highway that leads to Lockhart, Texas. Credit: Sergio Flores for The Hechinger Report
“Those things would catch a lot of the individuals who couldn’t make it to four-year universities or couldn’t afford to go to four-year universities,” Metzler said. “That’s always been kind of where we as a community have kind of been lacking.”
Lockhart also has an incentive for partnering with ACC: A recent assessment commissioned by the city identified the need to partner with a postsecondary institution for job training if it wanted to meet its economic goals and compete in its target business sectors, namely large-scale auto and electronic manufacturing, food processing and tourism. It also identified the lack of skilled administrative workers along with computer and math specialists as a challenge to reaching those goals.
In the end, PAC members easily surpassed the threshold of the 744 signatures they were required to submit — they turned in 1,013.
On the ballot now is a proposal for homeowners to trade $232.54 a year on average — a rate of $.1013 per $100 in property value — for in-district services. That includes a steep discount for in-district tuition that comes out to $85 per credit hour compared with $286 for out-of-district residents, though high school graduates from Lockhart ISD would also qualify for free tuition under a recently adopted five-year pilot program going into effect this fall.
“We are very interested in providing access to high-quality, affordable education in our region because we think it’s a game changer for families,” Chris Cervini, ACC’s vice chancellor for community and public affairs, said in an interview. “We think it promotes affordability by providing folks a lifeline to a family-sustaining wage, so we are very bullish on our value proposition.”
A flier provides information in Spanish about Austin Community College during a community event in early October in Lockhart, Texas. Credit: Sergio Flores for The Hechinger Report
The vote would also allow ACC to grow its tax base as it works to keep pace with its growing enrollment. When classes kicked off this fall, ACC was serving about 70,000 students across 11 campuses in the Central Texas region — an enrollment increase of 15 percent compared with a year earlier. The potential expansion comes as community colleges are adapting to a new state financing model based on student outcomes, including financial incentives for schools if students obtain workforce credentials in certain fields.
The college proposed a three-phase service plan that would begin with expanded offerings in the area, such as evening classes, and eventually work up to a permanent facility tailored to match workforce needs, including demand for certificate programs to “reskill and upskill” for various high-demand careers. Cervini, who has been a main liaison with the Lockhart community, previously said the college was considering whether it could quickly deploy its resources into the community through mobile training rigs for HVAC and welding.
Its timeline could be sped up now that the college has identified a historic building in the heart of downtown — the old Ford Lockhart Motor Company building — as its potential home. During a recent presentation to the Lockhart City Council, ACC Chancellor Russell Lowery-Hart told city leaders he appreciated that the site would represent the community’s history juxtaposed to “what we think the future looks like.”
But ACC leaders said the issue ultimately has to play out in the community. There’s been no apparent organized opposition to the vote in Lockhart, and ACC officials say they’ve been engaged with local leaders who have been supportive in helping inform voters about the annexation process. The proposal recently picked up the endorsement of Lockhart’s mayor, Lew White, who commended ACC leaders for their outreach to the community about their offerings.
“I think that’s what a lot of people have been asking for, and I think you’re really shaping your proposal for this fall election very nicely,” White said. “And I think it’s something that our community needs to get together and get behind and support.”
Even Lockhart ISD leaders frame the college’s pitch as an initiative with potential benefits extending well beyond the increased access it would offer students in the region.
Overseeing a record 6,850 students in a district covering about 300 square miles, Superintendent Mark Estrada said education is essential to cultivating communities where residents can not only actively participate in the sort of growth Caldwell County is experiencing but benefit from it as well.
“I think the real conversation and consideration is how would this benefit the educational attainment of the entire community, which currently is one of the lowest in Central Texas,” Estrada said. “The mid-career switches, people’s opportunity to have access to education to pursue a passion or career they’ve always been interested in — that’s a major consideration for the community. It’s a narrow look if we’re only looking at high school graduates.”
In exchange for paying more taxes, residents in the Lockhart Independent School District would qualify for in-district tuition at Austin Community College, which would also build out college facilities in this rural stretch of Texas. Lockhart grads also qualify for free tuition under a recently adopted five-year pilot program taking effect this fall. Credit: Sergio Flores for The Hechinger Report
Still, Caldwell County remains a conservative area in a conservative state where fighting property tax increases has become a favorite political calling card. Much of that debate has centered on funding for public schools, with the fight over school finance often falling to the question of whether older Texans, who are mostly white and less likely to have children enrolled in public schools, are willing to pay for the future of younger Texans, who are mostly Latino. Roughly 4 out of every 5 students enrolled in Lockhart ISD are Latinos.
Voters in the area have shown at least some unwillingness to foot the bill for education-related expansions. In 2019, they rejected a $92.4 million bond proposed to address the significant growth in student enrollment Lockhart ISD had seen in the prior decade. The bond package would have gone toward making more room for more students through the addition of a two-story wing to the local high school, two new school buildings and renovations throughout the district. It also would have backed improvements to the district’s workforce preparation efforts, including a new agricultural science facility and additions to the district’s career technology center to allow more students to participate in auto repair classes and hospitality training. Opponents of the measure, 1,632 voters, won with 55 percent of the vote compared with 1,340 who voted in favor.
This time around, proponents of annexation are hoping the eagerness they’ve felt in the community from those who signed onto the original petition — and those who come to see the broader benefits it could bring to the community — will translate to votes.
In recounting the interest they fielded in the early days of their efforts collecting signatures, PAC members described one canvas of a local gym in a portion of the county that’s seeing some of the biggest growth but trails in terms of income. Some of the gym-goers were enthusiastic about the possibility of pursuing technical certifications but realized they weren’t registered to vote, a requirement of the signature collection process.
They went out and got on the voter rolls. Then, they came back to put their names on the petition.
The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.
Share of new college students in the fall of 2015 who were still in high school and taking a dual enrollment class. Map reprinted from The Postsecondary Outcomes of High School Dual Enrollment Students A National and State-by-State Analysis (October 2024) Community College Research Center.
Dual enrollment is exploding. During the 2022-23 school year, nearly 2.5 million high school students took college classes, simultaneously earning high school and college credits. That’s up from 1.5 million students in the fall of 2021 and roughly 300,000 students in the early 2000s. Figures released last week show that dual enrollment grew another 7 percent in the fall of 2024 from a year earlier, even as the number of traditional college freshmen fell.
Exactly how much all of this is costing the nation isn’t known. But the state of Texas, which accounts for 10 percent of high schoolers who are taking these college classes, was investing $120 million annually as recently as 2017, according to one estimate. It wouldn’t be far fetched to extrapolate that over $1 billion a year in public funds is being spent on dual enrollment across the nation.
Alongside this meteoric rise of students and resources, researchers are trying to understand who is taking advantage of these early college classes, whether they’re expanding the pool of college educated Americans, and if these extra credits help students earn college degrees faster and save money.
A new analysis released in October 2024 by the Community College Research Center (CCRC), at Teachers College, Columbia University, and the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center tracked what happened to every high school student who started taking dual enrollment classes in 2015. Of these 400,000 high schoolers, more than 80 percent enrolled in college straight after high school. That compares favorably with the general population, of whom only 70 percent of high school graduates went straight to college. Almost 30 percent of the 400,000 dual enrollees, roughly 117,000 students, earned a bachelor’s degree in four years. But a majority (58 percent) had not earned any college degree, either a four-year bachelor’s or a two-year associate, or any post-secondary credential, such as a short-term certificate, within this four-year period. (The Hechinger Report is an independent unit of Teachers College.)
This is the most detailed and extensive analysis of dual enrollment that I’ve seen, covering all students in the nation, and tracking them for years after high school. But the analysis does not answer the fundamental question of whether dual enrollment is a worthwhile public policy.
It’s not clear that an early taste of higher education encourages more students to go to college who wouldn’t have otherwise. And it’s hard to tell from this report if the credits are helping students get through college any faster.
The fact that students with dual enrollment credits are faring better than students without dual enrollment credits isn’t terribly persuasive. In order to qualify for the classes, students usually need to have done well on a test, earned high grades or be on an advanced or honors track in school. These high-achieving students would likely have graduated college in much higher numbers without any dual enrollment courses.
“Are we subsidizing students who were always going to go to college anyway?” asked Kristen Hengtgen, a policy analyst at EdTrust, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization that lobbies for racial and economic equity in education. “Could we have spent the time and energy and effort differently on higher quality teachers or something else? I think that’s a really important question.”
Hengtgen was not involved in this latest analysis, but she is concerned about the severe underrepresentation of Black and Hispanic students that the report highlights. A data dashboard accompanying the new report documents that only 9 percent of the high schoolers in dual enrollment classes were Black, while Black students made up 16 percent of high school students. Only 17 percent of dual enrollment students were Hispanic at a time when Hispanic students made up almost a quarter of the high school population. White students, by contrast, took 65 percent of the dual enrollment seats but represented only half of the high school population. Asian students were the only group whose participation in dual enrollment matched their share of the student population: 5 percent of each.
Advocates of dual enrollment have made the argument that an early taste of college can motivate students to go to college, and the fact that so few Black and Hispanic students are enrolling is perhaps is the most troubling sign that the giant public-and-private investment in education isn’t fulfilling one of its main objectives: to expand the college-educated workforce.
Hengtgen of EdTrust argues that Black, Hispanic and low-income students of all races need better high school advising to help them sign up for the classes. Sometimes, she said, students don’t know they have to take a prerequisite class in 10th grade in order to be eligible for a dual enrollment class in 11th grade, and by the time they find out, it’s too late. Cost is another barrier. Depending upon the state and county, a family may have to pay fees to take the classes. Though these fees are generally much cheaper than what college students pay per course, low-income families may still not be able to afford them.
Tatiana Velasco, an economist at CCRC and lead author of the October 2024 dual enrollment report, makes the argument that dual enrollment may be most beneficial to Black and Hispanic students and low-income students of all races and ethnicities. In her data analysis, she noted that dual enrollment credits were only providing a modest boost to students overall, but very large boosts to some demographic groups.
Among all high school students who enrolled in college straight after high school, 36 percent of those with dual enrollment credits earned a bachelor’s degree within four years compared with 34 percent without any dual enrollment credits. Arguably, dual enrollment credits are not making a huge difference in time to completion, on average.
However, Velasco found much larger benefits from dual enrollment when she sliced the data by race and income. Among only Black students who enrolled in college straight away, 29 percent of those who had earned dual enrollment credits completed a bachelor’s degree within four years, compared to only 18 percent of those without dual enrollment credits. That’s more than a 50 percent increase in college attainment. “The difference is massive,” said Velasco.
Among Hispanic students who went straight to college, 25 percent of those with dual enrollment credits earned a bachelor’s degree within four years. Only 19 percent of Hispanic college students without dual enrollment credits did. Dual enrollment also seemed particularly helpful for college students from low-income neighborhoods; 28 percent of them earned a bachelor’s degree within four years compared with only 20 percent without dual enrollment.
Again, it’s still unclear if dual enrollment is driving these differences. It could be that Black students who opt to take dual enrollment classes were already more motivated and higher achieving and still would have graduated college in much higher numbers. (Notably, Black students with dual enrollment credits were more likely to attend selective four-year institutions.)
There is a wide variation across the nation in how dual enrollment operates in high schools. In most cases, high schoolers never step foot on a college campus. Often the class is taught in a high school classroom by a high school teacher. Sometimes community colleges supply the instructors. English composition and college algebra are popular offerings. The courses are generally designed and the credits awarded by a local community college, though 30 percent of dual enrollment credits are awarded by four-year institutions.
A few other takeaways from the CCRC and National Student Clearinghouse report:
States with very high rates of college completion from their dual enrollment programs, such as Delaware, Georgia, Mississippi and New Jersey, tend to serve fewer Black, Hispanic and low-income students. Florida stood out as an exception. CCRC’s Velasco noted it had both strong college completion rates while serving a somewhat higher proportion of Hispanic students.
In Iowa, Texas and Washington, half of all dual enrollment students ended up going to the college that awarded their dual enrollment credits.
In Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Wisconsin, dual enrollment students have become a huge source of future students for community colleges. (A separate cost study shows that some community colleges are providing dual enrollment courses to a nearby high school at a loss, but if these students subsequently matriculate, their future tuition dollars can offset those losses.)
And that perhaps is the most worrisome unintended consequence of the explosion of dual enrollment credits. Many bright high school students are racking up credits from three, four or even five college classes and they’re feeling pressure to take advantage of these credits by enrolling in the community college that partners with their high school. That might seem like a sensible decision. It’s iffy whether these dual enrollment credits can be transferred to another school, or, more importantly, count toward a student’s requirements in a major, which is what really matters and holds students back from graduating on time.
But a lot of these students could get into their state flagship or even a highly selective private college on scholarship. And they’d be better off. Dual enrollment students who started at a community college, the report found, were much less likely than those who enrolled at a four-year institution to complete a bachelor’s degree four years after high school.
The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.
A local high school is making waves online for all the right reasons. Taft High School is going viral, showcasing the power of a great teacher.See the story in the video above “Everybody else came to me like, ‘OK, this is the new student,’” Robert Kelly said. “She came to me like she already knew me. I hadn’t felt that way yet.”Kelly joined Taft at the start of his junior year. Kelly made an impression on the football field, but was curious about media studies. Kelly found a mentor in his media studies teacher, Shanah LeGre.Over the past year, Kelly has taken charge of LeGre’s media department.”I need him in my life,” LeGre said. “Every teacher needs a Robert Kelly. He’s amazing, and I’m honored to get his jersey.”Kelly and his fellow football seniors made headlines by giving their jerseys to teachers who made an impact on their lives ahead of the school’s senior night game. The video of the event, shared by athletic director Austin Gullett, has gone viral, racking up more than 10 million views in just four days.”I texted our football group chat,” Kelly said. “Like, ‘The NFL just commented on our post.’ It was crazy.”Gullett was just as shocked by the response to the video. He hopes the outpouring of support will inspire students and showcase the good that happens within schools every day.Longtime art teacher Susan Coakley was one of the staff members honored by the players. She said this recognition meant everything.”When those guys came around and handed us their jerseys, it meant the world to us,” Coakley said. “Very appreciative of our magic makers here at Taft because that’s what they did that day.”
A local high school is making waves online for all the right reasons. Taft High School is going viral, showcasing the power of a great teacher.
See the story in the video above
“Everybody else came to me like, ‘OK, this is the new student,’” Robert Kelly said. “She came to me like she already knew me. I hadn’t felt that way yet.”
Kelly joined Taft at the start of his junior year. Kelly made an impression on the football field, but was curious about media studies. Kelly found a mentor in his media studies teacher, Shanah LeGre.
Over the past year, Kelly has taken charge of LeGre’s media department.
“I need him in my life,” LeGre said. “Every teacher needs a Robert Kelly. He’s amazing, and I’m honored to get his jersey.”
Kelly and his fellow football seniors made headlines by giving their jerseys to teachers who made an impact on their lives ahead of the school’s senior night game.
The video of the event, shared by athletic director Austin Gullett, has gone viral, racking up more than 10 million views in just four days.
This content is imported from TikTok.
You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
In honor of Senior Day tomorrow, our senior football players chose one staff member who has had a positive impact on their life to wear their jersey to the game tomorrow afternoon. From security to teacher to administrators, no matter the title you hold, you never know who you can make an impact on. Every day we come to work is an opportunity to make an impact & these staff members have changed these young men’s lives for the better! WE ARE TAFT!!! 💚💛 #SeniorNight#Jersey#teacherappreciation#wholesome
“I texted our football group chat,” Kelly said. “Like, ‘The NFL just commented on our post.’ It was crazy.”
Gullett was just as shocked by the response to the video. He hopes the outpouring of support will inspire students and showcase the good that happens within schools every day.
Longtime art teacher Susan Coakley was one of the staff members honored by the players. She said this recognition meant everything.
“When those guys came around and handed us their jerseys, it meant the world to us,” Coakley said. “Very appreciative of our magic makers here at Taft because that’s what they did that day.”
A local high school is making waves online for all the right reasons. Taft High School is going viral, showcasing the power of a great teacher.See the story in the video above “Everybody else came to me like, ‘OK, this is the new student,’” Robert Kelly said. “She came to me like she already knew me. I hadn’t felt that way yet.”Kelly joined Taft at the start of his junior year. Kelly made an impression on the football field, but was curious about media studies. Kelly found a mentor in his media studies teacher, Shanah LeGre.Over the past year, Kelly has taken charge of LeGre’s media department.”I need him in my life,” LeGre said. “Every teacher needs a Robert Kelly. He’s amazing, and I’m honored to get his jersey.”Kelly and his fellow football seniors made headlines by giving their jerseys to teachers who made an impact on their lives ahead of the school’s senior night game. The video of the event, shared by athletic director Austin Gullett, has gone viral, racking up more than 10 million views in just four days.”I texted our football group chat,” Kelly said. “Like, ‘The NFL just commented on our post.’ It was crazy.”Gullett was just as shocked by the response to the video. He hopes the outpouring of support will inspire students and showcase the good that happens within schools every day.Longtime art teacher Susan Coakley was one of the staff members honored by the players. She said this recognition meant everything.”When those guys came around and handed us their jerseys, it meant the world to us,” Coakley said. “Very appreciative of our magic makers here at Taft because that’s what they did that day.”
A local high school is making waves online for all the right reasons. Taft High School is going viral, showcasing the power of a great teacher.
See the story in the video above
“Everybody else came to me like, ‘OK, this is the new student,’” Robert Kelly said. “She came to me like she already knew me. I hadn’t felt that way yet.”
Kelly joined Taft at the start of his junior year. Kelly made an impression on the football field, but was curious about media studies. Kelly found a mentor in his media studies teacher, Shanah LeGre.
Over the past year, Kelly has taken charge of LeGre’s media department.
“I need him in my life,” LeGre said. “Every teacher needs a Robert Kelly. He’s amazing, and I’m honored to get his jersey.”
Kelly and his fellow football seniors made headlines by giving their jerseys to teachers who made an impact on their lives ahead of the school’s senior night game.
The video of the event, shared by athletic director Austin Gullett, has gone viral, racking up more than 10 million views in just four days.
This content is imported from TikTok.
You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
In honor of Senior Day tomorrow, our senior football players chose one staff member who has had a positive impact on their life to wear their jersey to the game tomorrow afternoon. From security to teacher to administrators, no matter the title you hold, you never know who you can make an impact on. Every day we come to work is an opportunity to make an impact & these staff members have changed these young men’s lives for the better! WE ARE TAFT!!! 💚💛 #SeniorNight#Jersey#teacherappreciation#wholesome
“I texted our football group chat,” Kelly said. “Like, ‘The NFL just commented on our post.’ It was crazy.”
Gullett was just as shocked by the response to the video. He hopes the outpouring of support will inspire students and showcase the good that happens within schools every day.
Longtime art teacher Susan Coakley was one of the staff members honored by the players. She said this recognition meant everything.
“When those guys came around and handed us their jerseys, it meant the world to us,” Coakley said. “Very appreciative of our magic makers here at Taft because that’s what they did that day.”
In 2015, as head of a small N-12 school in upstate New York, I learned that Gen Z was predicted to be the first generation of U.S. students who wouldn’t see college as the automatic next step after high school. This insight sparked a year-long project to redesign our high school model. Yet, when I presented my plan for more personalized, applied learning pathways to my faculty, they balked at departing from the ‘tried and true.’
Fast forward to today, and we’re facing a crisis far more urgent than I could have imagined. Students aren’t just questioning the value of college–they’re questioning the value of showing up to high school at all.
Students are casting a silent vote against the current high school model
Recent data from YouthTruth paints a stark picture: During the 2022-23 school year, over a quarter of students were chronically absent across 41 states, with high schools reporting an average 31 percent chronic absence rate. This isn’t just a number–it’s a silent referendum. Our students are voting with their feet, and voting “no” to the current high school experience.
The consequences of student disengagement and chronic absenteeism are far-reaching:
Lower academic performance and decreased likelihood of graduation
Reduced future earning potential
Increased risk of involvement in the criminal justice system
Even more concerning is what YouthTruth calls the “support gap.” While 48 percent of students in 2022-23 cited depression, stress, or anxiety as obstacles to learning (up from 39 percent in spring 2020), only 41 percent reported having an adult at school they could talk to about these issues (down from 46 percent pre-pandemic).
This gap persists despite significant attention to youth mental health issues. It’s a stark reminder that awareness alone is not enough–we need action.
These big picture changes will transform our high schools.
When I couldn’t get my colleagues on board with reinventing high school in 2015, it was because the change felt too big and too radical. Today’s data emphasizes that we no longer have the luxury of incremental change. Here are the key areas where we need to focus our long-term efforts:
Student-led redesign: Establish task forces that give students real power to audit current school practices and propose changes.
Data-driven engagement: Implement systems to track not just attendance, but also participation and enthusiasm in classes, using this data to inform school policies and practices.
Family-school partnerships: Create dedicated teams to build and maintain strong, ongoing relationships between schools and families through two-way school-home communication.
Flexible learning models: Redesign school schedules to allow for later start times, block scheduling, or other flexible arrangements that better accommodate student needs and learning styles.
Integrated real-world learning: Develop comprehensive programs that partner with local businesses and organizations to offer internships, apprenticeships, and project-based learning opportunities.
Restorative justice culture: Implement school-wide restorative practices to replace punitive discipline systems, fostering a more supportive and equitable school community.
As Jonah Schenker, superintendent of Ulster BOCES in New York, wisely notes, “We have a responsibility–because of the nature of BOCES and the flexibility we have–to create a bit of an incubator for some of the areas where we know education needs to change so that we can show by example, point them to other systems making those changes, or create offerings that bring that change in.”
These small steps will kick-start engagement right away.
While systemic change is crucial, we can’t wait for perfect conditions to start improving student engagement. Here are five simple yet impactful actions schools can implement right away to begin moving the needle in positive ways:
Start every day with a check-in: Begin each school day with a brief, structured check-in session. This could be during homeroom or first period. Use this time for students to share how they’re feeling, what they’re looking forward to, or any concerns they have. This simple practice can significantly boost students’ sense of belonging and connection to the school community.
Implement “Feedback Fridays”: Set aside time every Friday for students to provide feedback on their learning experiences that week. This could be through a quick survey, a class discussion, or written reflections. Use this feedback to make real-time adjustments to teaching methods and school policies. This shows students that their voices matter and can lead to tangible changes.
Create a “passion project” hour: Dedicate one hour per week where students can work on self-directed projects related to their personal interests or career aspirations. This gives students autonomy over their learning and helps them see the relevance of school to their lives and futures.
Establish a peer mentoring program: Pair older students with younger ones for weekly mentoring sessions. This can help build community across grade levels, provide leadership opportunities for older students, and give younger students additional support and guidance.
Invite local professionals for lunch-and-learn sessions: Once a month, invite professionals from various fields to have lunch with students and share about their careers. This can be done virtually if necessary. These sessions can help students see the connection between their education and future career possibilities and may spark new interests.
These steps don’t require a complete overhaul of the school system, but they can start to shift the culture towards one of greater engagement, relevance, and student voice. They lay the groundwork for more comprehensive changes and send a clear message to students that their school is committed to evolving to meet their needs. Importantly, schools should regularly share the progress and outcomes of these initiatives with families, fostering a sense of partnership and shared commitment to student success.
Remember, the goal is progress, not perfection. Every step towards greater student engagement is a step in the right direction.
The writing is on the wall–or rather, in the empty seats of our classrooms. Our students are telling us through their absences that the current system isn’t working. It’s time we listen and act. By engaging students, families, and communities in reimagining the high school experience, we can create schools that students not only attend but actively choose to be part of. The future of our education system–and the success of an entire generation–depends on our willingness to make this change.
Dr. Kara Stern, SchoolStatus
Dr. Kara Stern is Director of Education and Engagement at SchoolStatus, a leader in K-12 data-driven solutions that empower student success. SchoolStatus provides a comprehensive suite of communication and attendance solutions that enhance educator-to-family connectedness and support student success.
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BROOKLINE, Mass. — It was a humid, gray morning in July, and most of their peers were spending the summer sleeping late and hanging out with friends. But the 20 rising 10th graders in Lisa Rodriguez’s class at Brookline High School were finishing a lesson on exponents and radicals.
As Rodriguez worked with two students on a difficult problem, Noelia Ames was called over by a soft-spoken student sitting nearby. Ames, a rising senior who took Algebra II Honors with Rodriguez as a sophomore, was serving as a peer leader for the summer class.
“Are you stuck on a problem?” Ames asked, leaning over to take a closer look.
Noelia Ames, a senior at Brookline High, helps a younger student with a math problem during a summer class where she served as a peer teacher. Credit: Javeria Salman/The Hechinger Report
The students in Rodriguez’s class were participating in a summer program created by the Calculus Project, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit. Founded at Brookline High near Boston in 2009, the group now works with roughly 1,000 students from 14 nearby districts beginning in the summer after seventh grade to help them complete advanced math classes like calculus before they finish high school.
It focuses on helping students who are historically underrepresented in high-level math classes — namely those who are Black, Hispanic and low-income — succeed in that coursework, which serves as a gateway to selective colleges and well-paying careers. While some states and districts are nixing advanced-math requirements, sometimes in the name of equity, the Calculus Project has a different theory: Students who have traditionally been excluded from high-level math can succeed in those courses if they’re given a chance to preview advanced math content over the summer and take classes with a cohort of their peers.
In recent years the Calculus Project’s work has taken on fresh urgency, as the pandemic hit Black, Hispanic and low-income students particularly hard. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court ruling banning affirmative action left even some college officials concerned that inequities in high school math would make it harder for them to fill their classes with students from diverse backgrounds. The Calculus Project’s national profile has grown — its staff advises the College Board on AP math exams and classes and have advised groups in a few other states — even as the organization has attracted some scrutiny from parents, due to its emphasis on students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
“One out of 10 Black students in the eighth grade math scores were scoring basic or above,” saidKristen Hengtgen, a senior policy analyst at the nonprofit advocacy group EdTrust, referring to last year’s National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card. “When you see that, you need to throw certain student groups the life jacket,” she added. “We cannot combat a math crisis if we’re not helping the students who need it the most.”
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The racial and socioeconomic gaps in math are stark: Only 28 percent of Black students and 31 percent Hispanic students nationwide took advanced math in high school compared with 46 percent of white students, according to a 2023 report from EdTrust. Just 22 percent of low-income students took advanced math. Experts say that’s because these students are less likely to attend high schools that offer higher-level math or to be recommended by their teachers for honors or AP classes, regardless of mastery.
They are also less likely to report feeling confident in math class or to enroll in calculus even when they are on a path to take the class early in high school, according to a report from EdTrust and nonprofit Just Equations. When it comes to Black and Hispanic students, Hengtgen blames what she calls “the belonging barrier.” “Their friends weren’t in the class,” she said. “They rarely had a teacher of color.”
Senior James Lopes, wearing a green sweatshirt, listens to William Frey teach a lesson on polynomials, rational trigonometrics, exponential and logarithmic functions at the Calculus Project’s summer leadership academy program at Boston University. Credit: Javeria Salman/The Hechinger Report
As a math teacher at Brookline High in the early 2000s, Calculus Project founder Adrian Mims got firsthand experience in what the research was beginning to establish. Black and Hispanic students were largely absent from the high school’s honors and advanced math courses, he said, and the few Black and Hispanic students who did enroll often dropped out early in the year.
As a PhD candidate at Boston College, Mims was writing his dissertation on how to improve African American achievement in geometry honors classes. His findings — suggesting that Black students dropped out of the course because they lacked knowledge of certain foundational math content, spent less time studying and preparing for tests, and lacked confidence in their math ability — became the catalyst for the first iteration of The Calculus Project.
Mims’ idea was to introduce Black students over the summer to math concepts they’d learn in eighth grade algebra in the fall. Students would be able to take the time to really understand those concepts and to build their confidence and skills, learning both from district teachers and peer teachers who could provide individual support.
In the summer of 2009, Mims piloted his idea with a group of rising eighth graders. In addition to learning concepts they’d see in algebra that fall, they were exposed to the stories of famous Black and Latino figures who excelled in STEM, such as Black NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson and Mexican-American astronaut Jose M. Hernandez. When the school year arrived, they participated in after-school tutoring at Brookline High.
The next fall, 2010, the district opened the program to all interested students, regardless of race. Summer participants were placed into cohorts so they could advance through math classes in high school with peers they knew.
Teachers and administrators at Brookline say the project had an immediate — and lasting — impact. “It’s so much more than learning math,” said Alexia Thomas, a guidance counselor and associate dean of students at Brookline High.
In 2012, Brookline High saw more Black students score as advanced on the state Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System Math test than ever before; 88 percent of those students had participated in the Calculus Project. The highest-scoring student in the district was Black – and a program alum. Two years later, when the first cohort of students who participated in both the summer and year-long programs graduated from high school, 75 percent had successfully completed calculus.
A class of rising eighth graders in the Calculus Project’s summer leadership academy at Emmanuel College finishes a review before their final exam on content previewing Algebra I. Credit: Javeria Salman/The Hechinger Report
Today, eight districts participate in the year-round program and another six send their students to the group’s summer programs, two three-week sessions that take place at Boston University, Emmanuel College and University of Massachusetts-Lowell. As of May 2024, 31 percent of students in the program identified as Black, 39 percent as Hispanic/Latino, 11 percent as Asian and 7 percent as white, according to program data. Mims has helped develop similar models in Florida and Texas.
In 2023, research consultancy group Mathematica, in partnership with the Gates Foundation, published findings from a two-year study on the effectiveness of the Calculus Project and two other math-oriented summer programs. (Disclosure: The Gates Foundation is one of the many funders of The Hechinger Report.) According to the report, students in the Calculus Project outperformed students who hadn’t participated by nearly half a grade point in their fall math classes, on average.
The project runs counter to a recent push to engage high schoolers in math by making the content more relevant to the real world and substituting classes like data science for algebra II and calculus. Justin Desai, the Calculus Project’s director of school and district support and a former Boston Public Schools math teacher and curriculum designer, said he sees risks in that approach. Students need subjects like calculus, he said, because “it’s the foundation of modern technology.” To replace advanced math classes in favor of less rigorous math courses keeps students from accessing and excelling even in some non-STEM fields like law, he said.
The project finds ways to show students how math skills apply in the professional world. Every semester students take field trips to Harvard Medical School, Google and to university research centers and engineering companies, where they are introduced to careers and see how the math they are learning is used in society.
A group of rising eighth graders from Newton Public Schools learn how to use different engineering applications at MathWorks headquarters in Natick, Mass. Credit: Javeria Salman/The Hechinger Report
In late July, a group of rising eighth graders from Newton Public Schools’ summer program took a field trip to the sprawling campus of global software company MathWorks. In one room, an engineer showed students how a car simulation model is built and used, while a second engineer helped students test a robotic arm. Another group of students learned how to use a programming software to turn an image into music.
As the Calculus Project has grown, there has at times been friction. In July, simmering tension between teachers and students at Concord-Carlisle High School came to a head when some project participants learned they’d been placed in financial literacy or statistics courses instead of calculus.
Some students being placed into lower-level classes has been a pattern since the program started at Concord-Carlisle in 2020, Mims said. He threatened to pull the program from the high school, and the students were reassigned to calculus (and one to statistics).
Mims said “this is a clear example” of how teacher recommendations can lock students out of advanced math classes. School administrators and teachers often point to students and parents as the reason for a lack of diversity in high-level math. “When we destroy that myth and we show that students can achieve at that level,” said Mims, “they can no longer point the finger at the students and the parents anymore, because we’ve created a precedent that these students can thrive.”
Laurie Hunter, the Concord-Carlisle superintendent, wrote in an email that her district is committed to partnering with the Calculus Project and that it “works closely with individual students and families to ensure their success and path align with the outcomes of the project.” She did not respond to specific questions.
A student in William Frey’s summer class at Boston University works on graphs during a lesson on functions. Credit: Javeria Salman/The Hechinger Report
Milton Public Schools, another district that works with the Calculus Project, was the subject of a 2023 federal civil rights complaint from national conservative group Parents Defending Education. The group accused the district of discrimination by partnering with the Calculus Project, which it said segregates students by intentionally grouping students of certain backgrounds together as part of cohorts.
Mims rejects the group’s claims, noting that the Calculus Project is open to students of all backgrounds including white and Asian students. He says he has not heard from the federal government or the group about the complaint since early 2023. Parents Defending Education did not respond to several interview requests. A spokesperson for the federal Department of Education said the Office for Civil Rights does not confirm complaints but pointed to its list of open investigations. At the time of publication, there were no open investigations against Milton Public Schools.
Art Coleman, a founding partner at legal group EducationCounsel LLC, said that he doesn’t expect such challenges to be successful. School districts have a legal obligation to address inequities in student performance, he said, and “there is nothing in federal law that precludes that targeted support, as long as in broad terms, all students, regardless of their racial or ethnic status, have the ability to tap into those resources and that support.”
This summer, the Calculus Project expanded its programming, including by adding a college advising class for rising seniors. It’s part of the group’s mission to help its students succeed not just in high school but in college and beyond, Mims said.
The group plans to help its graduates secure internships while they’re in college and network once they’re out, he said, and will soon begin tracking students to see how they do in college and the workforce. “It’s really about giving them every advantage that rich kids have,” Mims said.
Ames, the Brookline High senior and peer teacher, said she has found the program “totally life-changing,” in part because of the relationships she’s built with other students and teachers.
Miranda Vasquez-Mejia, a rising ninth grader from Newton, learns how to handle a robotic arm at MathWorks headquarters in Natick, Mass. Credit: Javeria Salman/The Hechinger Report
“You can be in the hardest class or the easiest class and every teacher will be there to support you,” said Ames, who is taking AP Calculus this fall and is considering studying finance after high school. “Whatever questions you have, they’ll answer.”
Quentin Robinson, a college junior who joined the Calculus Project as a rising seventh grader, said it taught him that he enjoyed math and also how to advocate for himself.
“My freshman year, they tried to put me in a lower-level math class because they didn’t think I was capable,” Robinson said. But his summer experience empowered him, and he persuaded the school to place him in Geometry Honors instead. He graduated from high school having completed both calculus and a college-level statistics course.
Now, Robinson is an accounting and data analytics major at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. The Calculus Project, he said, helped him realize the voices of naysayers can be used as “a fuel” to achieve what you want.
Contact staff writer Javeria Salman at 212.678.3455 or salman@hechingerreport.org.
This story about advanced math was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our newsletter.
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NCAA Football is Once Again a Philly Autumn Obsession.
But Is the Local Feel Fading Away?
Suppose you haven’t gotten an opportunity to take in some great Pennsylvania High School Football yet this fall. In that case, you still have plenty of time to enjoy a Friday night frenzy or Saturday spectacular at many Philadelphia area high school fields or stadiums.
You may even get an opportunity to see a 4th and short trademarked Philadelphia bulldozing, pile-driving-tush push — but not from the Eagles (at least not until Sunday).
For most of us, fall plans of leaf raking and errand running must be worked on Saturday around the national obsession of college football.
However, seeing some of the nation’s marquee matchups is proving more difficult in the Philadelphia area each year.
Temple Football
PHOTO: Danny Wild/Imagn Images
Temple Football, the preeminent Football Program in Philadelphia dating back to 1894 and once influenced by the great Pop Warner, hasn’t gone to a bowl game since 2019 and hasn’t won one since 2017.
Between 1990 and 2009, Temple Football didn’t have a winning season. Instead, it held on to the promise of a newly constructed stadium in Philadelphia, which has not yet happened.
LaSalle Football
LaSalle College and then LaSalle University — who developed a football program during the US Depression era in 1931 until it was discontinued in 2007 due to funding issues. From 1931 until 2007, the football program had only seven winning seasons.
We’ll have to wait to see if the beginnings of a resurgence in LaSalle’s athletic programs beginning in 2025 will include a return to football.
Villanova Football
Perhaps Philadelphia’s saving grace in football lies in its suburbs. Villanova, with a combined record of 647–495–41 (a winning percentage of .564), a legacy since 1894, and one claimed National Championship in 2009. Or the University of Delaware — with its six Division I FCS National Titles, 24 playoff appearances, and 17 Conference Titles.
Penn Football
Sitting snugly on the University of Penn campus is one hundred thirty-year-old Franklin Field, whose Gilded-Age Era exterior facade of Weightman Hall has seen six of Penn’s seven national championships, last won in 1924.
The Eagles beat the Packers in 1960, and the Philadelphia Stars won a USFL title in 1984. It is the oldest college football stadium still in use today.
The Philadelphia region’s PIAA already boasts one of the best high school football programs in the country.
Its surrounding PA suburbs deserve the same great experience on Saturday as on Friday.
Pearson and its Connections Academy, the fully online public school program serving K-12 students, announced last week the expansion of their college and early career program into more than 20 schools. The program, now in over half of the Connections Academy-supported schools in the country provides tens of thousands of middle and high school students with opportunities to earn college credits and industry certifications, giving them a head start on their higher education and career journeys.
Recognizing the demand for job-focused, skill-building and career exposure, Pearson understood the need to tailor opportunities to middle and high school students and launched the Connections Academy college and early career readiness offerings in 2023.
The program’s tri-credit approach enables students to receive high school credit, industry-recognized micro-credentials, and eligibility for college credit toward U.S. bachelor’s degree programs. Initially supported by curriculum and credential partnerships with Coursera, Acadeum, and Pearson’s Credly, students are now benefitting from new partnerships with professional organizations, including the Future Business Leaders of America, The Home Depot, HOSA-Future Health Professionals and the SEMI Foundation, which provide them with experiences in careers across industries.
“Nearly 70% of students start thinking about their careers before 11th grade, and 14% begin considering their options in kindergarten – sixth grade,” said Lorin Thomas-Tavel, managing director, Pearson virtual schools, referencing original Pearson research. “Considering young people’s mindsets and the shifting focus of students, colleges and employers toward skills-based learning and recruiting, it is imperative we prepare them for successful early careers by addressing barriers such as cost and providing them with direction, confidence and connections.”
In addition to micro-credentials, and high school and college credit, these type of student needs are met through the program providing access to career assessments and lessons, developing post-secondary plans, selecting specific careers, writing in career journals, watching career videos, connecting with career coaches and earning badges.
Programming for the fall also includes engagement with professionals in science, technology, engineering, math, film and creative careers.
Students in more than half of Connections Academy schools now have access to college and early career programming, which will continue expanding to Connections Academy-supported schools in the coming years.
Kevin is a forward-thinking media executive with more than 25 years of experience building brands and audiences online, in print, and face to face. He is an acclaimed writer, editor, and commentator covering the intersection of society and technology, especially education technology. You can reach Kevin at KevinHogan@eschoolnews.com
PHOTO: Danny Wild/Imagn Images
